£xhvaxy  of  €he  theological  ^tminaty 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of  the 
Rev^  John  B.  Wledinger 

^Y.4253Ts7riioF 
Stimson,  Henry  Albert,   1842- 

The  new  things  of  God  ' 


The  New  Things  of 


Sermons 


By/ 
HENRY  A.^TIMSON 

Minister  of  the  Manhattan  Congregational 
Church,  New  York  City 


'  New  York       Chicago       Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
London        and       Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      \oq    Princes    Street 


To  the 

dear  memory  of 

My  Mother 


"  Our  modern  world  looks  as  if  it  were  getting  ready  for  a 
new  conception  of  Christ.  There  is  gathering  from  all 
points  of  the  compass  of  serious  religious  thought  a  volume 
of  insight  and  appreciation  of  Him  that  must  finally  over- 
whelm the  public  mind  with  the  sense  of  His  absoluteness 
for  humanity.  .  .  .  Everywhere  the  vision  is  opening 
to  the  reality  of  His  presence  in  the  world.  The  old  Christ 
conception  is  becoming  new  in  the  current  thoughts,  insights 
and  appreciations  of  the  time.  There  is  a  gathering  dis- 
cernment towards  this  great  centre.  .  .  .  The  worth  of 
the  individual,  the  reality  of  social  union,  the  sanctity  of 
home,  the  infinite  meaning  of  love,  the  eternal  validity  of 
our  ideas  of  righteousness,  freedom,  and  God,  all  the  ulti- 
mate realities  of  our  human  world,  are  the  creation  of 
Christ." 

George  A.  Gordon,  "  The  Christ  of  To-day i'  pp.  30,  31. 


PREFACE 

THESE  sermons  are  offered  to  the  pub- 
lic not  as  representing  a  new  theology 
or  a  new  interpretation  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  They  reveal  the  character  of  the 
regular  preaching  in  a  quiet  city  church  of  the 
Congregational  order  as  it  is  heard  from  Sab- 
bath to  Sabbath  as  presented  by  one  in  whom 
it  is  the  expression  of  a  settled  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  tested  by  some  experience  and  applied 
to  the  needs  of  to-day,  and  as  it  finds  welcome 
reception  by  a  loving,  faithful,  God-fearing  con- 
gregation. 

Its  newness  lies  in  the  fact,  not  only  that  we 
are  living  in  an  age  of  new  thought,  but  that 
growing  experience  is  ever  leading  Christians 
to  new  views  of  God  and  His  love  which  are 
invariably  accompanied  by  something  of  new- 
ness in  the  understanding  of  God's  Word.  In 
this  way  we  are  getting  our  new  conception  of 
Christ. 

As  the  sermons  have  not  been  unattended 
with  evidence  of  blessing  to  some  who  heard 
them,  it  is  my  earnest  hope  that  there  may  be 
blessing  in  them  also  for  some  who  may  read. 

5 


6  PREFACE 

As  I  believe  that  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is 
God's  appointed  way  of  bringing  in  His  king- 
dom and  of  saving  the  world,  I  have  abiding 
confidence  and  grateful  joy  in  my  calling.  I 
am  glad  to  try  to  show,  so  far  at  least,  what  is 
the  Gospel  that  to-day  is  preached  in  our 
churches  and  to  cherish  the  hope  that  it  may 
be  a  message  from  God  to  some  who  would 
like  to  know  it  but  never  go  to  hear  it. 

Henry  A.  Stimson. 

Manhattan  Congregational  Church, 
New  Tork,  Sept.  ist,  igo8. 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  New  Things  of  God     .        .        9 

II.  The  New  Wine  and  the  Old  Bot- 

tles       25 

III.  The  Saving  Faith  ....      40 

IV.  The  Life  that  Is  Life  Indeed     .      53 

V.  The  Paradox  of  Life    ...      65 

VI.  The  Moral   Value    of  Antipa- 

thies     75 

VII.  The  Famine  for  God     ...      85 

VIII.  How  TO  get  Right  With  God       .      98 

IX.  The  Radiant  Life  .       .        .       .110 

X.  Christ  the  Restorer    .        .        .    120 
XL  Defeating  God      .        .        .        .132 

XII.  The  Beautiful  Deed    .        .        .141 

XIII.  Achieving  the  Impossible    .        .    156 

XIV.  Hindrances  and  Helps         .        .169 

XV.  The  Enlightening  of  the  Heart    183 

XVI.  The  Challenge  of  Christ   .        .    196 
XVn.  God's  Saints 209 

XVIII.  The  Reward  of  Service       .       .    222 

XIX.  Jonah 233 

XX.  The  Church  and  the  Sick    .        .    245 

XXI.  Jesus  and  Social  Conditions       .    267 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

«'  And  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  said  :    *  Behold  I  make  all 
things  new.' " — Rev.  21 :  $. 

WE  are  indebted  to  Dr.  George  Mathe- 
son,  the  late  distinguished  blind 
preacher  of  Glasgow,  for  the  saying 
that  the  difference  between  making  new  things, 
and  making  things  new,  is  that  one  is  of  the 
head  and  the  other  of  the  heart. 

We  flatter  ourselves  that  we  can  make  things 
new.  Our  friend  has  broken  his  leg  and  we 
watch  him  come  out  in  his  convalescence.  The 
doctor  has  assured  him  that  his  leg  is  as  good 
as  new;  but  we  notice  that  he  carries  a  cane 
and  walks  gingerly.  We  send  our  broken  par- 
lour chair  to  the  cabinet-maker,  and  he  returns 
it  with  the  assurance  that  it  is  stronger  than  it 
was  before  ;  but  we  are  nervous  when  our  stout 
visitor  turns  to  sit  in  it.  We  bear  unconscious 
testimony  to  the  insufficiency  of  our  work  when 
we  speak  of  the  recreation  of  the  summer. 
Why  do  we  not  say  re-creation  ?  It  is  because 
we  know  that  the  heavy  work  of  the  year  has 
left  its  mark,  and  that  the  wearied  nerves  will 
never  again  be  exactly  what  they  were  before 

9 


10  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  strain.  We  are  glad  if  we  can  give  them 
recreation,  for  we  know  too  well  that  as  the 
years  go  by  nature's  forces  in  us  cannot  be  re- 
created 

But  when  we  come  to  God's  work,  how  differ- 
ent it  all  is  I  Here  there  is  no  distinction  be- 
tween the  head  and  the  heart.  God's  work  is 
perfect,  and  when  He  makes  old  things  new, 
the  new  powers,  and  the  new  joys,  and  the  new 
life  will  indeed  be  better  than  the  old.  We 
turn  to  this  vision  of  the  glories  of  the  last  day, 
given  to  the  Beloved  Disciple  in  his  solitary 
exile,  and  we  are  able  in  some  degree,  to  catch 
with  him  the  meaning  of  the  wonderful  sen- 
tence, "  And  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  said, 
•  Behold  I  make  all  things  new.' "  That  is 
well  worthy  of  being  the  crowning  character- 
istic of  the  Divine  work,  the  sufficient  glory  of 
God  Himself  in  the  day  of  His  recognized  tri- 
umph. Let  us  give  attention  then  for  a  little 
to  this  thought, — God's  joy  in  making  things 
new. 

God's  great  work  is  in  the  realm  of  the  soul. 
Creation  itself  prepared  for  the  Redemption. 
The  earth  is  the  arena  in  which  the  tragedy  of 
human  sin  unfolded  and  in  which,  in  the  fullness 
of  time,  God's  provision  to  rescue  man  from  sin 
and  to  reveal  Himself  in  the  glory  of  that  fin- 
ished work,  was  to  be  accomplished.     The  work 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  11 

has  a  scope  that  we  can  feel,  but  it  is  hard  for 
us  to  grasp  it  in  its  details.  We  know  some- 
thing of  the  degradation  of  the  sin,  of  the  hope- 
lessness of  the  destruction  which  it  works  in  the 
human  heart,  and  of  the  apparent  impossibility 
of  making  the  old  new. 

Some  can  remember  their  own  first  experi- 
ence of  serious  transgression  with  its  startling 
revelation,  its  sudden  and  awful  shock,  its 
strange  feeling  of  loneliness,  the  complete  isola- 
tion in  which  we  felt  ourselves  cut  off  from  all 
old  associations,  even  from  the  friends  nearest 
and  dearest,  who  had  held  us  in  their  hearts  up 
to  that  sad  hour.  How  can  we  ever  be  the 
same  again  ?  How  can  we  ever  put  ourselves 
back  into  the  old  relations  or  hope  ever  again 
to  be  loved  as  we  once  were  ?  It  is  true  that 
nobody  knows,  and  the  first  impulse  is  to  trust 
in  the  protection  of  a  profound  secret;  but 
alas !  we  know  that  the  clamouring  voice  in 
one's  heart  seems  to  sound  not  only  in  the  cir- 
cle of  one's  friends,  but  also  in  the  universe,  as 
it  sounds  indeed  before  the  bar  of  God.  We 
cry  with  the  prodigal :  "I  have  sinned  against 
heaven  and  in  thy  sight :  I  am  no  more  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son."  And  with  the  Psalmist, 
"  Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I  sinned,  and 
done  that  which  is  evil  in  Thy  sight."  But 
we  cannot  cry  with  him,  "  Purge  me  with  hyssop 


12  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

and  I  shall  be  clean.  Wash  me  and  I  shall 
be  whiter  than  snow."  That  is  beyond  our  ut- 
most imagination. 

It  is  true  that  years  may  have  passed  since 
that  sad  day.  We  have  got  used  to  ourselves 
and  the  strange  situation.  Our  sensibilities  are 
dulled.  We  have  adjusted  ourselves  to  the 
new  conditions.  We  have  lowered  our  hopes 
to  meet  the  dullness  of  our  feeling.  Sin  has 
lost  much  of  its  vividness  and,  therefore,  of  its 
guilt.  We  have  come  to  be  ordinary  men  and 
women,  living  the  common  life  and  putting  God 
and  the  judgment  far  off.  We  have  discovered 
that,  after  all,  nobody  does  know,  and  what  is 
not  known  may  w^ell  be  forgotten.  We  put 
out  of  our  minds  all  that  we  can  of  disagree- 
able memory ;  and  we  have  successfully  adopted 
the  cheer  that  comes  with  daily  activity  and  in- 
difference to  the  consequences  of  the  past.  We 
are  not  making  things  new,  but  we  are  adjust- 
ing ourselves  to  the  old, — planing  it  down  to 
the  level  of  the  commonplace,  where  its  pangs 
disappear,  even  though  its  pleasures  must  nec- 
essarily be  discredited. 

It  is  to  men  in  this  condition  that  God  comes 
with  His  work  of  Redemption.  Into  this  world 
of  sinners,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  with  the 
proclamation  of  a  Divine  Love  which  at  once 
challenged  the  sinner  to  recall  his  past  in  all  its 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  13 

vividness,  and  to  face  the  realities  of  his  per- 
sonal condition  in  all  their  truth, — to  lay  his 
heart  bare  before  God,  if  not  before  men,  and  in 
the  full  light  of  that  divine  inspection  and  with 
all  the  sting  of  an  awakened  conscience  to  con- 
fess his  sins  and  to  seek  the  forgiveness  which 
is  so  freely  offered  and  so  fully  bestowed. 
Arising  from  his  penitential  knees,  he  is  startled 
with  the  sense  of  a  new  life  springing  up  in  the 
very  depths  of  his  soul,  a  new  joy,  a  new  hope, 
and  a  new  courage,  the  amazing  surprise  of  new 
possibilities.  The  gradual  comprehension  of 
the  new  fact  that  he  is  a  new  man  in  Christ 
Jesus  comes  upon  him  and  he  turns  humbly  and 
timidly  to  his  old  life,  prepared  for  the  growing 
testimony  to  the  amazing  truth  that  God  has 
indeed  created  a  new  heart  within  him  and 
given  him  a  new  spirit,  that  the  old  man  in  him 
is  dead  and  all  things  have  become  new.  He 
who  was,  if  not  an  enemy,  at  least  a  stranger  to 
God,  has  become  a  child  in  his  Father's  house, 
an  heir  of  the  promise  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus 
his  Lord.  Already  permitted  to  be  confident  of 
a  strength  not  his  own  which  will  help  him  to 
do  right,  and  of  a  pardon  so  complete  that  even 
in  the  last  day  when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts 
shall  be  revealed,  there  shall  be  no  trace  of  ac- 
cusation, and  even  the  memories  and  the  records 
of  the  past  shall  be  utterly  blotted  out. 


U  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

This  is  the  truth  with  which,  by  comparison 
with  our  own  feeble  efforts  at  renewal,  we  are 
so  overwhelmed  when  we  come  to  face  God's 
making  old  things  new.  When  John  Wesley- 
was  dying,  in  a  brief  moment  of  returning  con- 
sciousness he  asked :  "  What  was  the  text  that 
I  preached  upon  last  Sunday?"  And  when 
one  standing  beside  him  repeated,  "  For  ye 
know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that 
though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  He  be- 
came poor  that  ye  through  His  poverty  might 
become  rich,"  he  exclaimed,  *'Yes;  that  is  it 
There  is  no  other."  Facing  eternity,  he  gained 
a  new  view  of  the  wonder  and  the  perfection  of 
that  redemptive  work  which,  finding  him  a 
hopeless  sinner,  had  caused  him  to  be  born 
anew  into  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God.  A  little 
before  he  had  said,  **  When  I  get  to  heaven,  I 
want  very  much  to  see  King  David  and  to  talk 
with  him ;  and  most  of  all,  I  want  to  talk  with 
St.  Paul."  The  reason  was  plain.  These  were 
the  men  who  knew  as  few  others  the  meaning 
of  the  renewing  work  of  God  in  a  sinful  soul. 
The  one  had  fallen  before  terrible  temptation 
and  had  cried  out  in  the  agony  of  his  soul  for 
the  forgiveness  which  lifted  him  up  and  put  a 
song  upon  his  lips.  The  other  had  been  the 
chief  of  sinners  and  had  become  the  triumphant 
witness  to  the  Crucified  and  Redeeming  Christ. 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  15 

A  modest,  gentle,  kindly  business  man  once 
stood  before  me  with  shining  eyes,  telling  of 
the  joy  that  had  come  to  him  as  the  result  of 
his  giving  himself  in  middle  life  to  the  Lord. 
**To  think,"  he  said,  ''that  for  more  than 
twenty  years  I  have  tried  to  do  this  for  myself 
and  could  not ;  and  now  in  one  hour  the  Lord 
has  done  it  for  me." 

Horace  Bushnell  late  in  life  was  addressing 
the  students  in  Yale  College.  Recalling  the 
day  when,  long  years  before  a  tutor  in  the 
college,  and  a  stout  unbeliever,  he  had  strug- 
gled with  himself,  and  by  the  grace  of  God  had 
surrendered  and  begun  the  new  life,  he  said, 
"  There  is  a  story  laid  up  in  the  little  bedroom 
of  one  of  these  old  dormitories  which  I  pray 
God  the  recording  angel  may  know,  allowing 
it  never  to  be  lost." 

Think  of  our  Lord's  joy  in  His  disciples,  in 
the  thief  on  the  cross,  in  the  woman  at  the  well. 
How  He  yearned  over  them ;  how  He  strove  to 
make  the  love  of  God  appear  to  them,  and  to 
awaken  in  their  hearts,  the  glad  belief  that  God 
can  make  old  things  new.  And  then,  at  last, 
the  sudden  breaking  in  of  the  revelation,  the 
vanishing  of  the  doubts  and  fears,  and  the 
dawn  of  the  new  life  in  the  faces  that  were  be- 
fore Him !  What  is  all  this  but  the  suggestion 
of  the  joy  in  God's  heart  when  He  does  His 


16  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

wonderful  work  of  re-creating  sin-sick  souls  and 
giving  the  new  life  where  death  had  come  to 
reign. 

But  this  is  by  no  means  the  only  indication 
of  the  divine  joy  in  making  old  things  new. 
There  is  the  joy  which  God  has  in  changing 
bitterness  to  blessing.  We  cannot  escape  the 
bitter  cup.  Sorrow,  and  failure,  and  disap- 
pointment, and  pain  are  the  lot  of  all. 
Sooner  or  later,  every  one  must  ask,  **  Is  life 
worth  living  ? "  and  in  view  of  the  misery  of 
the  passing  hour,  must  feel  that  the  hateful  an- 
swer is  forced  upon  him.  The  bitter  cup  has 
come,  and  it  darkens  all  our  life.  We  know 
that  it  will  pass,  but  its  memory  is  fixed  ;  and  its 
successor  in  some  form  is  sure  to  tread  upon 
its  heels.  No  one  is  exempt;  the  experi- 
ence is  so  universal,  and  the  occurrence  is  so 
frequent,  that  it  is  not  strange  that  in  many  a 
heart  all  life  settles  into  a  dull  endurance,  and 
in  many  a  soul  there  is  an  abiding  conviction 
that  the  game  is  not  worth  the  candle. 

In  our  better  hours  we  try  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  it  all.  We  search  for  evidence  that 
there  is  a  deep  underlying  good,  and  that  the 
immediate  outcome  is  a  discipline  which  leads 
to  strength.  We  think  of  men  like  Prescott, 
the  historian,  facing  in  early  manhood  oncom- 
ing blindness,  and  giving  himself  with  unfalter- 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  17 

ing  courage  to  the  laborious  task  of  the  student 
until  he  made  himself  the  great  historian  of  his 
country. , 

We  see  young  Henry  Fawcett,  the  Cambridge 
University  graduate,  suddenly  shot  in  both  eyes 
in  the  hunting  field  by  a  gun  in  the  hands  of 
his  father, — the  most  pitiful  of  all  conceivable 
accidents — instantly  pulling  himself  together, 
trying  to  comfort  the  crushed  heart  of  his  father, 
and  promptly  devoting  himself  to  the  plan  of 
life  which  he  had  been  brooding  over,  and  then 
proceeding  to  make  himself  through  long  years, 
the  eloquent,  courageous,  successful  tribune  of 
the  English  people, — uplifting  the  oppressed, 
delivering  crushed  and  overworked  toilers  from 
their  hopeless  task,  pleading  in  the  Parlia- 
ment in  which  he  had  won  his  position  by  his 
dauntless  and  persistent  courage,  always  the 
cause  of  the  neglected  and  the  needy ;  dying  at 
last  the  most  loved  man  in  his  native  land. 

A  wonderful  sentence  comes  to  us  from  the 
Middle  Ages.  Out  of  the  turmoil,  the  vice 
and  the  bloodshed  of  the  Florence  of  that  day, 
we  hear  the  voice  of  the  great  poet  as  he  says  in 
his  immortal  words  :  "In  sua  voluntade  e  nostra 
pace." — (**  In  the  doing  of  His  will  lies  our 
peace.")  How  did  Dante  know  that  ?  Has  any 
thought  risen  higher  than  that  through  all  the 
centuries  ?    In  the  doing  of  God's  will,  the  sur- 


18  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

rendering  of  ourselves  to  His  appointment,  the 
accepting  of  the  cup  because  He  sent  it,  is  not  only 
the  discipline  we  need,  not  only  the  promise  of 
strength  and  attainment,  but,  far  more  than  this, 
the  peace,  the  deep  abiding  divine  peace  of  the 
soul. 

I  have  a  friend  now  in  the  prime  of  his  great 
success  as  a  preacher  struck  with  oncoming 
blindness  and  bravely  keeping  at  his  work. 
Reading  a  recent  writing  of  his,  I  find  this  sen- 
tence ;  commenting  on  this  theme  of  the  sorrows 
of  life  as  God's  appointment,  and  the  blessed 
peace  that  is  to  be  found  in  giving  one's  self  to 
doing  His  will,  he  says :  "  When  we  have 
learned  this  one  lesson  we  are  ready  for  heaven.'* 
Think  of  the  divine  joy  when  the  Father  can  look 
down  upon  such  a  soul  transformed  already,  so 
far,  at  least,  into  His  own  likeness.  His  crowning 
work  in  all  the  universe, — a  soul  rising  to  respond 
to  His  love,  and  finding  its  new  life  in  His  gift, 
leaping  to  devote  itself  to  His  service.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  in  that  last  day  when  such  shall  come 
to  Him,  an  unnumbered  multitude  out  of  every 
country  and  nation  and  clime.  He  shall  say  as 
the  crowning  truth  of  the  final  triumph  :  "  Be- 
hold I  make  all  things  new.'* 

But  once  more, — mark  the  joy  that  lies  in 
God's  work  in  making  the  unproductive  fruitful. 
The  Old  Testament  is  full  of  the  promise  of  fruit- 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  19 

fulness.  The  land  shall  blossom  and  shall  laugh 
with  its  fertility.  The  barns  shall  be  full,  and 
the  fields  under  God's  blessing  shall  whiten  with 
the  rich  harvest.  Our  Lord's  promise  is  "Ye 
shall  bear  much  fruit."  This  is  to  be  the 
measure  and  the  reward  of  a  true  disciple- 
ship. 

There  is  that  in  every  heart  which  responds  to 
this  thought.  We  can  all  understand  some- 
thing of  the  feeling  of  the  farmer  leaning  on  his 
gate  and  looking  at  the  waving  fields  of  grain 
about  him.  He  has  planted  and  cultivated  and 
waited  for  the  harvest,  and  here  it  is.  He  has 
made  the  waste  land  fruitful,  and  his  soul  is 
filled  with  a  supreme  satisfaction. 

Look  at  the  light  in  the  face  of  the  young 
father  over  his  new-born  child,  or  the  joy  of  the 
mother  as  for  the  first  time  she  presses  her  in- 
fant to  her  heart.  Life  has  produced  life. 
Fruitfulness  has  come,  the  blessed  gift  of  God. 
We  all  know  its  significance ;  even  the  dullest 
and  weariest  long  for  its  privileges. 

I  sat  the  other  day  on  a  platform  looking  into 
the  bright  faces  of  the  graduating  class  in  a 
great  woman's  college,  and  as  they  passed  in 
long  procession  before  their  president  to  receive 
their  diplomas,  I  noticed  among  those  blooming 
girls,  one  gray-haired,  middle-aged  woman. 
What  was  the  meaning  of  her  presence  in  that 


20  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

senior  class  ?  She  was  a  teacher  of  many  years* 
experience,  but  she  had  long  carried  the  con- 
sciousness of  her  own  limitations.  She  had 
never  had  the  privilege  of  a  college  education 
and  the  thought  had  grown  with  the  years  that 
she  could  not  do  her  best  work,  could  not  really 
rise  to  her  finest  possibilities  in  consequence. 
So  she  had  laid  down  her  work,  and  now  in 
middle  life  had  come  to  college,  had  suppressed 
all  thought  of  comparison  or  of  humiliation,  and 
had  entered  as  a  freshman,  had  slowly  pushed  her- 
self through  the  successive  years  until  now,  with 
gentle  face,  she  stood  with  those  young  girls  to 
receive  the  well-earned  diploma  which  gave  to 
her  the  promise  of  a  new  youth,  because  it 
brought  a  sense  of  new  powers. 

Here  then  is  the  picture  of  God's  work  of 
making  old  things  new.  With  a  new  fruitful- 
ness  giving  to  men  and  women,  His  children,  a 
new  courage,  a  new  cheer,  a  new  understand- 
ing of  life  and  of  Him,  by  which  their  life  is 
exalted,  their  labour  made  productive,  their 
sorrows,  and  trials,  and  failures,  and  discipline 
wrought  into  every  web  and  woof  of  His  plan 
for  a  finished  and  glorified  creation.  And  all 
this  not  as  a  work  of  the  head  only,  but  as  a 
work  of  God  Himself  in  the  fullness  of  His 
being.  Heart  and  head,  divine  intelligence 
and    divine   love   combining  to   do   the  work 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  21 

that  is  so  much  needed  by  men,  and  which, 
more  than  all  else,  reveals  the  true  character  of 
our  God. 

And  now  to  what  does  all  this  lead  ?  What 
purposes  should  it  awaken  in  us?  What  vi- 
sion of  life  should  dawn  upon  our  thoughtful 
eyes  ?  Are  we  not  summoned  to  do  our  part 
along  the  line  that  God  Himself  indicates  ?  The 
Church  is  a  power  house.  To  it  is  given  the  dy- 
namic of  the  spiritual  life  to  use  in  doing  the 
work  of  God  on  earth.  Jesus  Christ  has  come 
to  dwell  in  it  and  to  inspire  its  life.  It  is  not 
sufficient  for  it  to  go  on  in  old  ways.  We  live 
in  a  new  day.  We  have  new  possibilities.  We 
should  reach  out  for  new  results.  Christianity 
is  something  more  than  a  method  of  saving 
individuals,  infinitely  blessed  as  that  work  is. 
It  has  become  the  social  gospel.  No  man  lives 
to  himself.  We  can  only  prove  the  reality, 
then,  of  the  new  life  when  we  find  it  going  out 
and  laying  hold  of  others.  They  must  share 
the  life  of  God  in  us  if  that  life  is  to  be  real  in 
our  own  hearts. 

God  has  a  plan  for  each  several  life.  We 
are  labourers  together  with  God  in  striving 
to  work  that  plan  out,  but  the  sole  condition 
on  which  this  can  be  done  is  that  others 
share  in  the  work.  No  man  can  do  it  single 
handed.      Therefore,    the    fruitfulness    of    the 


22  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Christian  must  be  sought  in  the  success  with 
which  he  brings  others  into  sharing  the  bless- 
ings which  mean  so  much  to  him,  that  he 
and  they  together  may  press  forward  in  both  the 
knowledge  and  the  service  of  God.  We  must 
together  be  apostles,  that  is,  men  sent,  not  sim- 
ply disciples,  that  is,  men  taught.  We  are 
witnesses  not  simply  to  the  word  which  God 
has  spoken,  but  to  the  life  and  the  joy  and  the 
purpose  which  are  revealed  in  God  Himself. 
The  joy  of  making  all  things  new  becomes 
the  measure  and  the  test  of  the  work  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  follower  of 
Jesus  Christ  alike. 

So,  as  individuals,  we  have  a  new  summons 
to  mutual  affection.  It  becomes  our  privilege 
to  bind  up  broken  friendships,  to  help  men  to 
comfort,  to  be  careful  to  guard  against  speech 
that  wounds,  to  be,  on  our  part,  watchful  and 
constant  to  make  new  joy.  Love  becomes  not 
merely  love  to  God ;  but  God's  very  own  love 
glowing  in  the  hearts  of  men  reveals  Himself 
in  their  love  one  for  another. 

So  we  eagerly  seek  new  openings  for  a  fruitful 
service.  We  find  this  in  every  improvement  in 
the  circumstances  of  our  life, — better  conditions 
even  in  material  things, — these  mean  better 
work,  more  eagerness,  more  willingness  to 
help,  a  prompter  readiness  to  make  sacrifices  if 


THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  23 

need  be,  in  order  that  the  work  which  reveals 
God  may  go  forward. 

A  minister  friend  of  mine  a  while  ago  asked 
a  gentleman  coming  to  New  York  from  the 
country  what  had  led  him  with  his  family  to 
come  to  unite  with  his  small  church  instead  of 
going  to  one  of  the  great  ones ;  and  the  prompt 
and  smiling  answer  came,  "  Because  I  thought 
I  could  lift  a  little  harder  here."  Here  was  a 
disciple  who  knew  the  heart  of  his  Master. 

At  last  all  things  shall  be  new.  God's  work 
will  be  done.  We  shall  see  as  we  are  seen  and 
know  as  we  are  known.  The  mystery  of  life 
will  be  opened,  and  the  darkness  forever  will 
be  gone.  The  other  day  a  minister,  a  dear  friend, 
told  me  that  as  he  closed  his  service,  he  saw  in 
the  aisle  at  the  door  a  lady  member  of  his  church, 
whom  he  knew  had  lately  been  stricken  with 
blindness.  He  paused  for  a  moment  before 
leaving  the  pulpit  to  observe  her.  She  was 
slowly  making  her  way  through  the  crowd, 
guiding  herself  down  the  aisle  from  pew  to  pew 
with  her  outstretched  hand.  He  went  at  once 
to  meet  her,  and  as  he  took  her  hand,  he  said, 

"  My  dear  Mrs. ,  I  am  so  sorry  for  you, 

but  it  will  all  be  light  up  yonder,  and  then  you 
will  know  why  God  has  permitted  this  great 
affliction."  She  lifted  her  shining  face  towards 
him  and  said,  **  If  I  am  so  happy  as  to  get  to 


24  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

heaven  at  last,  I  shall  let  bygones  be  bygones, 
and  not  trouble  the  Lord  for  explanations." 

"  In  that  day,"  said  our  Lord,  "  ye  shall  ask 
Me   nothing."     Your  joy  will   be   full.     Then 
God  will  indeed,  for  us,  have  made  all  things 
I  ^  new,  as  only  God  can. 


II 

THE  NEW  WINE  AND  THE  OLD  BOTTLES 

"  No  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old  wine-skins ;  else  the  new 
wine  will  burst  the  skins,  and  itself  will  be  spilled,  and  the  skins 
will  perish.  But  new  wine  must  be  put  into  fresh  wine-skins. 
And  no  man  having  drunk  old  wine  desireth  new :  for  he  saith: 
The  old  is  good." — Luke ^  •' 37-39- 

THE  great  question  in  religion  to-day  is 
how  to  adjust  the  old  to  the  new,  for 
the  new  is  dominant.  Everywhere  we 
are  under  the  influence  of  new  thought,  so  that 
we  have  new  science  and  new  truth  pressing 
for  recognition  in  religion  as  in  everything  else. 
It  is  sometimes  said  that  there  can  be  no  new 
truth  in  religion,  but  only  new  forms  of  truth. 
It  is  a  statement  hardly  worthy  of  discussion, 
as  it  resolves  itself  merely  into  a  matter  of 
terms.  Our  concern  always  is  with  truth  ap- 
prehended in  definite  form,  so  that  the  form  be- 
comes of  the  essence  of  the  thing  itself.  Dis- 
embodied truth  we  do  not  know,  if  indeed  it 
exists.  Therefore,  the  question  of  new  truth, 
by  which  we  mean  truth  freshly  put  in  its  re- 
lations to  the  problems  and  the  people  of  to-day, 
is  just  as  real  a  factor  in  life  as  is  new  truth  in 
science,  where  beyond  all  question  it  exists  even 

25 


26  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

though  the  material  out  of  which  it  is  shaped  is 
as  old  as  nature  itself. 

When  we  come  to  religion,  we  may  be  sure 
that  Jesus'  way  of  adjusting  the  new  to  the  old 
is  the  right  way,  if  we  can  only  rightly  under- 
stand it.  The  intelligent  man  of  to-day  holds 
himself  ready  both  to  heed  and  to  use  new 
truth  from  whatever  source  it  may  come  to  him. 
In  this  respect  whatever  his  temperament  may 
be,  he  is  a  radical,  and  the  old  drama  which 
long  ago  spoke  of  Jesus  as  "  the  first  true  gen- 
tleman," if  it  were  deahng  with  the  life  about 
us,  could  with  equal  propriety  speak  of  Him  as 
*'  the  first  true  Radical."  What  may  be  called, 
therefore,  the  radicalism  of  Jesus  is  a  matter  of 
as  truly  modern,  as  it  is  of  vital,  interest.  If 
we  can  rightly  understand  it,  we  have  the  pat- 
tern and  the  rule  for  the  Christian. 

Men  are  in  the  habit  of  interpreting  radical 
to  mean  going  to  the  roots  of  things,  and  to  be 
content  with  a  definition  which  lies  so  close  to 
the  etymology  of  the  word.  But  before  we 
accept  this  as  sufficient,  it  is  well  to  consider 
how  easily  derivations  may  mislead. 

A  skeptic,  for  example,  is  supposed  to  be  a 
man  who  looks  into  things.  He  peers  from  un- 
der his  shaded  eyes.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  skeptic  is  quite  as  often  the  man  who  does 
not  see.   '-He  is  the  man  who  doubts,  and  the 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      27 

man  who  doubts  is  very  near  to  being  the  man 
who  does  not  know,  and  who  is  suffering  the 
perils  of  his  ignorance.  He  is  skeptical  be- 
cause he  permits  himself  to  remain  more  or  less 
contented  in  this  attitude  of  uncertainty  ;  and 
uncertainty  means  hesitancy  ;  and  prolonged 
hesitancy  loses  both  opportunity  and  strength. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  radical  is  very  often 
the  man  who  sees  only  one  side  of  a  question. 
He  is  one  possessed  with  some  single  form  of 
truth,  which,  because  it  is  new  to  him,  and 
therefore  bulks  large  in  his  thought,  and  pos- 
sibly in  his  self-importance,  appears  to  him  of 
prime  importance  to  the  world.  Or,  he  grasps 
one  principle,  the  impulse  of  which  is  so  master- 
ful in  his  own  life  that  it  seems  sufficient  to  in- 
dicate the  whole  range  in  which  not  only  his  life, 
but  all  life,  should  move.  As  a  consequence, 
whatever  the  derivation  of  the  word  may  indi- 
cate, experience  shows  that  in  very  many  re- 
lations, the  radical  man  is  the  erratic  and  the 
one-sided  man.  It  should  not  be  so,  of  course, 
but  human  nature  being  what  it  is,  it  is  the 
common  experience. 

Furthermore,  the  radical  man  is  generally  a 
man  who  in  proportion  to  his  radicalism  is  im- 
patient of  others.  His  tendency  is  to  flock  by 
himself.  He  becomes  denunciatory  and  for- 
getful of  the  fact  that  the  best  test  of  truth  is  its 


28  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

application  to  other  minds,  and  that  only  as 
we  find  others  accepting  that  which  we  hold,  do 
we  really  gain  a  true  and  available  hold  upon 
it  ourselves. 

Jesus'  characteristics  were  all  the  opposite  of 
this.  Beyond  all  dealers  with  new  truth,  He 
was  patient  and  gently  considerate  even  of  His 
enemies.  The  truth  that  was  revealed  to  Him 
of  God  had  gradually  to  sink  into  His  mind, 
and  apparently  for  years  to  dwell  there,  adjust- 
ing itself  to  His  thought,  until  only  at  last  after 
thirty  years  was  He  prepared  to  proclaim  it  to 
the  world. 

When  His  disciples,  in  the  first  rush  of  their 
early  enthusiasm,  threw  themselves  in  a  truly 
radical  spirit  upon  the  world.  His  prompt  re- 
buke was :  "Ye  know  not  what  spirit  ye  are 
of."  He  stands  out  in  contrast  with  the  great 
leaders  of  the  Old  Testament  day.  Moses 
would  be  the  better  type  of  our  modern  con- 
ception of  a  radical,  as  he  stood  before  the  rock 
which  he  was  to  smite,  saying  in  his  impatience  : 
*'  What  shall  I  do  unto  this  people  ? ''  But  in 
his  more  instructed  time,  when  he  was  alone  with 
God  on  the  mount,  he  approached  nearer  to  the 
type  of  Jesus,  as  he  prays  that  the  people  may  be 
forgiven  and  spared,  and  if  God  cannot  do  that, 
he  pleads  that  he  be  taken  as  a  vicarious  sacri- 
fice for  them. 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      29 

The  fact  is,  the  word  radical  is  not  altogether 
a  safe  term.  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  long  ago 
said  that  words  have  a  power  of  their  own, 
which  in  many  cases  is  a  positive  trend.  For 
this  reason  he  deliberately  refrained  from  using 
certain  words,  like  liberal,  for  example  ;  which, 
as  he  said,  carries  one  whither  he  would  not 
go,  and  comes  to  have  a  meaning  neither  true 
nor  gracious.  The  same  is  true  with  radical. 
It  ought  to  be  a  wholly  safe  word,  indicating 
thoroughness  and  the  command  of  patience 
and  strength.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  does 
neither.  Yet,  holding  in  mind  its  derivation, 
we  can  remember  that  Jesus  did  go  to  the  roots 
of  things,  that  He  did  take  up  with  new 
thought,  that  He  did  press  the  issues  which 
were  before  Him  and  that  He  was  a  Radical 
therefore  in  this  sense, — that  He  could  do  this 
and  still  maintain  that  attitude  which  makes 
this  safe  and  wise. 

For  example,  He  discarded  "  old  bottles." 
The  **  old  bottles  "  of  His  day  were  Judaism, 
its  traditions,  its  forms,  its  services,  its  sacrifices, 
its  all — even  its  law  and  its  Sabbath.  It  is 
hard  for  us  to  understand  the  shock  of  this. 
He  was  by  birth  and  training  a  Hebrew.  His 
mission  was  for  the  time  wholly  among  His 
own  people.  He  had  to  reach  them  by  using 
their  shibboleths  and  starting  with  them  in  the 


30  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

accepted  positions  of  their  own  thought  and 
life.  The  symbols  which  He  was  to  discard 
were  symbols  of  the  best  things  which  then 
existed  in  the  world.  They  had  been  the 
means  of  holding  the  Israelites  a  separate  race, 
and  maintaining  among  them  the  worship  of 
the  true  God,  when  all  the  world  lay  in  the 
darkness  and  despair  of  heathenism. 

It  is  always  difficult  to  separate  symbols  from 
truth,  or  in  this  sense,  the  bottles  from  the 
wine ;  but  whether  hard  or  easy,  Jesus  did  it, 
and  He  did  it  so  thoroughly  that  He  aroused 
the  bitter  hostility  of  His  neighbours  and 
friends,  and  in  consequence  hastened,  if  He  did 
not  make  inevitable.  His  own  death.  From 
the  standpoint  of  human  history,  this  might  be 
regarded  as  an  immense  loss.  In  the  light  of 
what  experience  teaches  us  in  similar  positions, 
we  say,  ''  How  much  would  have  been  gained 
if  He  could  have  done  differently ;  if  He  could 
only  have  held  to  the  past  more  firmly  and,  at 
least  for  the  time,  been  content  to  put  the  wine 
into  the  old  bottles,  even  at  the  risk  of  losing 
some  of  it !  "  Because  He  did  not  He  lost  Israel 
almost  entirely,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the 
Jews  have  been  largely  outside  of  the  pale  of 
His  Gospel. 

But  for  all  that.  His  method  was  unquestion- 
ably the  wise  one,  and  He  stands  for  the  Christian 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      31 

the  true  Exemplar.  We  must  fear  in  His  name 
that  conservatism  which  we  think  strengthens 
man's  hold  on  the  forms  of  the  past.  The 
things  to  which  we  have  been  accustomed  be- 
come to  us  almost  inevitably  the  embodiment 
of  the  truth,  if  not  essential  to  it.  The  customs, 
the  ceremonies,  the  books,  the  point  of  view 
which  mark  the  circle  of  our  life  and  the  range 
of  our  thoughts  stand  to  us  as  landmarks,  the 
removal  of  which  imperils  all  that  we  value. 
We  need  the  help  of  His  example  to  learn  to 
keep  the  bottles  distinct  from  the  wine,  and  to 
hold  ourselves  not  only  patient  of  change  but 
expectant  and  ready  at  any  time  to  pass  in  re- 
view the  bottles,  with  that  honest  search  for 
breakage  or  inutility  which  will  lead  us  at  any 
time,  if  there  is  reason,  to  cast  them  aside. 

Another  significant  fact  in  our  Lord's  dealing 
with  the  situation  was  the  confidence  that  He 
showed  in  new  bottles.  He  promptly  chose 
new  disciples.  They  were  men  wholly  un- 
tried, and  needing  to  be  taught  from  the  very 
beginning,  but  He  trusted  Himself  and  His  Gos- 
pel to  them,  even  though  in  doing  so  He  had  to 
break  with  the  accredited  leaders  and  teachers 
of  His  own  early  life.  In  the  same  way,  He 
took  up  new  methods.  He  not  only  banished 
entirely  the  method  of  teaching  in  vogue 
among  His  people,  but  He  instituted  a  new 


32  THE  NEAV  THINGS  OF  GOD 

evangelism  by  which  He  went  out  Himself 
among  the  common  people  and  taught  in  the 
market-places,  on  the  hillside  and  on  the  shore 
of  the  sea,  wherever  hearers  could  be  found 
and  taught  freely  whoever  came,  regardless  of 
whether  they  were  properly  scholars  or  not. 
Indeed,  He  quite  abandoned  the  distinctions  of 
the  schools  and  showed  Himself  as  ready  to 
teach  an  outcast  woman,  or  an  ignorant 
heathen,  or  a  Roman  soldier,  as  He  was  to 
teach  the  chief  rabbi  of  the  Jews. 

In  the  same  way,  He  promptly  organized  or 
prepared  the  material  for  the  organization  of  a 
new  Church.  The  conception  of  an  ancient 
and  historic  Church  which  looms  up  so  large  to 
us  and  seems  to  many  so  vital  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Christianity  never  meant  more,  or 
really  stood  for  more,  than  it  did  in  Israel  in 
His  time.  The  Temple  was  its  embodiment; 
and  the  ritual  of  Israel,  in  the  thought  of  His 
people,  dated  from  Moses.  It  had  abundant 
life,  and  it  knew  no  competitor,  and  yet  Jesus  is 
seen  turning  from  it  and  adopting  a  course  and 
teaching  principles  which  at  once  discredited, 
and  would  inevitably  overthrow  it.  He  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  Church  of  the  people,  so 
simple  in  its  form,  so  unhistorical  in  its 
methods,  that  all  it  required  was  two  or  three 
gathering  together  with  the  desire  to  worship 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      33 

God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
hearts ;  and  to  it  He  gave  the  assurance  that 
God  would  reveal  Himself  and  that  His  Spirit 
would  dwell  in  them. 

In  the  same  way  He  founded  the  Christian 
community,  an  entirely  new  conception,  made 
up  of  people  of  all  kinds,  taken  at  random  out 
of  every  condition  of  life  and  every  nationality, 
as  they  might  happen  to  come,  binding  them 
together  and  making  use  of  them  for  the  unit 
of  the  new  social  organization  to  which  He  was 
to  commit  His  Gospel  and  so  reveal  Himself. 
There  never  has  been  an  instance  in  history 
where  a  new  teacher  so  completely  cast  him- 
self upon  the  new  methods  which  he  introduced 
or  for  which  he  opened  the  way. 

His  Church  has  been  trying  new  bottles  ever 
since,  following  His  example  and,  as  they  be- 
lieve, obedient  to  His  desire  and  teaching.  His 
disciples,  after  His  death,  are  to  be  seen  scatter- 
ing everywhere,  organizing  churches,  and  using 
in  that  organization  whatever  gave  promise  of 
usefulness  that  they  found  in  the  community, 
whether  Jew  or  Greek,  that  lay  about  them. 
Paul  stands  as  the  very  apostle  of  this  new 
method,  adapting  himself  in  his  teaching  every- 
where to  his  audience,  quoting  their  literature, 
recognizing  their  prejudices,  availing  himself 
of  the  machinery  of  their  lives,  and  proving  in 


34  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

his  work  the  adaptability  of  the  new  religion  to 
the  immediate  needs  of  all.  Indeed,  so  far  did 
movement  in  this  direction  proceed  in  the  first 
centuries  that  scholars  have  found  difficulty 
ever  since  in  their  efforts  to  disentangle  what 
they  would  regard  as  the  original  teaching 
from  Greek  forms  of  thought  and  Roman  in- 
fluences of  organization  and  development. 

In  modern  times  we  have  seen  the  Church 
take  up  with  undiminished  enthusiasm  the 
modern  method  of  the  Sunday-school,  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  of  the 
Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavour, 
and  scores  of  other  forms  of  organization  and 
work  according  to  the  immediate  need.  Every- 
where it  has  held  itself  ready  to  use  "new 
bottles,"  and  to  commit  to  them  the  new  wine 
without  hesitancy. 

This  leads  us  to  observe  the  entire  confidence 
which  Jesus  also  put  in  the  new  wine.  We  ex- 
claim of  all  this  new  thought  with  which  we 
are  so  overwhelmed,  ''  How  good  it  is ! " 
What  refreshment  it  brings  to  life ;  what 
eagerness  it  gives  to  the  scholar  in  every  de- 
partment of  research ;  for  our  point  of  view 
has  changed  in  regard  to  almost  every  depart- 
ment of  knowledge.  The  world  has  a  new 
science,  and  a  new  hygiene,  and  a  new  eco- 
nomics, and  new  methods  of  business  and  of 


NEAV  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      35 

industry,  so  numerous  indeed  that  they  have 
long  since  passed  beyond  enumeration,  if  not 
beyond  recognition.  ReHgion  has  come  in  for 
its  share,  and  we  are  crowded  with  new  ques- 
tions of  documents  and  dates  and  authorship 
and  methods  of  interpretation.  We  have  still 
the  old  Bible,  but  it  is  a  new  book  in  the  light 
of  a  new  knowledge. 

What  is  all  this  to  the  new  thought  which 
opened  to  the  world  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  to  His  own  mind  when  with  His 
growing  life  He  was  able  to  grasp  the  message 
which  was  given  to  Him,  and  to  understand 
the  length  and  breadth  of  its  application  ?  He 
stood  in  an  old  and  worn-out  world.  The 
light  of  heaven  was  in  His  soul.  It  grew  upon 
Him  with  His  growth.  It  illumined  His  thought 
in  all  its  widening  powers.  It  possessed  Him 
in  every  part  of  His  being  and  by  so  much  it 
isolated  Him  from  the  life  about  Him.  But  His 
message  was  to  the  world  as  it  was  ;  and  we 
see  Him  committing  Himself  to  His  task  with- 
out reservation,  bringing  to  bear  upon  every 
one  He  could  reach  the  truth  which  filled  His 
own  thought.  No  more  striking  illustration  of 
this  can  be  seen  than  His  conversation  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria.  She  stood  for  what  is 
lowest  and  dullest  and  most  hopeless  in  human 
life.     He  apparently  ignored  that,  and  opened 


36  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

to  her  at  once  the  vision  of  God  as  a  Spirit,  to 
be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  sweeping 
away  the  traditions  of  centuries, — the  crutches 
upon  which  feeble  men  have  leaned  as  they 
have  sought  to  walk  in  God's  service,  and 
striving  to  bring  even  that  darkened  soul  at 
once  to  the  consciousness  of  her  own  powers 
and  possibilities  as  a  child  of  God. 

The  method  He  pursued  with  her  may  be 
taken  as  characteristic  of  Him.  His  confidence 
in  the  truth,  new  as  it  was  in  the  world,  was 
absolute  ;  and  stands  as  the  abiding  lesson  for 
us.  The  new  truth  is  always  for  the  world's 
knowing.  It  has  a  blessing  in  it.  Whether 
it  comes  in  the  crude  religion  of  young  con- 
verts, or  in  the  eager  enthusiasm  of  sectaries, 
there  is  something  in  the  very  newness  of  the 
impression  which  it  makes  in  any  heart,  which 
gives  it  power,  and  which  keeps  the  world  alert 
and  fresh  in  its  interest  in  the  truth. 

This  is  a  very  old  lesson  taught  by  the  Lord 
Himself  in  every  word  and  act  and  the  whole 
spirit  of  His  life  ;  but  how  often  has  it  needed 
to  be  reasserted  and  how  often  and  how  sadly 
the  Church,  even  in  its  best  days,  has  forgotten 
it  I  Indeed,  we  are  all  tempted  to  think  that 
we  have  found  the  measure  of  knowledge  and 
of  truth  in  ourselves.  We  glory  in  settled 
convictions,   and   also   in    clean-cut   statement 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES       37 

of  them.  We  forget  that  the  moment  truth 
comes  to  be  defined  it  begins  to  be  dormant, 
and  that  definitions  are  vaUd  only  for  those 
who  form  them  and  the  times  in  which  they 
live. 

Paul  was  never  truer  both  to  the  spirit  and 
the  method  of  the  Master  than  when  he  said : 
**  I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have  laid  hold  :  but 
one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things  which  are 
behind,  and  stretching  forward  to  the  things 
which  are  before,  I  press  on  towards  the  goal, 
unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Perhaps  never  was  his  exhorta- 
tion more  needed  than  when  he  said  :  **  Let  us, 
therefore,  as  many  as  are  perfect,  be  thus 
minded ;  and  if  in  anything  ye  are  otherwise 
minded,  even  this  shall  God  reveal  unto  you  ; "  if 
we  may  interpret  this  as  emphasizing  for  us  the 
open-mindedness  and  readiness  to  receive  new 
light,  and  confidence  in  the  light  when  it  comes, 
which  was  the  characteristic  of  our  Lord. 

But  when  all  this  has  been  said,  there  remains 
the  fact  that  our  Lord  emphasizes  the  precious- 
ness  of  the  old  wine.  He  was  Himself  well 
taught  in  the  religion  of  His  fathers,  and,  far  be- 
yond the  teachers  of  His  day.  He  recognized  the 
truth  that  is  in  Him,  and  gave  Himself  to  bring- 
ing that  truth  in  its  purest  and  most  precious 
form  to  the  apprehension  of  men.     The  Old 


38  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Testament,  the  Bible  of  His  fathers,  has  never 
been  more  precious  or  more  truly  the  means  of 
the  message  of  God  to  the  world  than  it  has 
been  since  He  took  it  up  and  brought  its  hid- 
den mysteries  to  light  through  His  Gospel. 

The  world,  it  is  true,  is  full  of  new  truth  to- 
day, but  the  old  truth  remains,  the  comfort 
and  the  strength  of  the  old  saints.  How  much 
there  is  to  be  thankful  for  in  this  !  Never  was 
there  more  reason  to  appreciate  the  restfulness 
of  a  quiet  faith  than  in  this  day  of  upheaval 
when  everywhere  the  foundations  are  disturbed 
and  so  many  are  at  sea.  We  may  well  thank 
God  for  those  about  us  who,  in  the  strength  of 
established  habits  of  prayer  and  worship  and 
walking  in  the  footsteps  of  Christ,  are  little  dis- 
turbed by  the  excitement  or  the  vagaries  of  the 
new  world.  They  have  long  walked  with  God. 
They  know  Him  and  they  have  no  least  doubt 
that  He  knows  them  ;  and  their  abiding  hope  is 
not  disturbed  that  in  His  own  good  time  He 
will  take  them  unto  Himself. 

The  old  wine,  indeed,  is  good  ;  even  if  we  drop 
the  word  of  our  older  Version,  and  do  not  claim 
that  it  is  "  better."  In  God's  kind  Providence 
there  is  a  place  and  there  is  need  for  all ;  the 
old  and  the  new,  in  all  their  forms,  are  of  use.  Let 
not  the  one  despise  or  rebuke  the  other,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Master  Himself  let  us  learn  with 


NEW  WINE  AND  OLD  BOTTLES      89 

patience  to  follow  the  light  as  God  may  give  it 
to  us,  and  so  dwelling  together  in  love,  prove 
that  love  is  of  God,  and  that  where  men  will  to 
do  His  will,  they  shall  know  of  the  doctrine. 


Ill 

THE  SAVING  FAITH: 

«  And  he  said  :  « Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  '  And  they 
said,  *  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved.*  " — Acis  i6  :  30-31. 

THE  Bible  is  full  of  declarations  of  the 
power  of  faith  to  save  men.  The  Old 
Testament  record  is  gathered  up  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews  where  the  series  of 
patriarchs  and  prophets  from  Enoch  and  Noah 
on  through  the  long  story  are  described  as  liv- 
ing by  faith,  and  being  what  they  were  because 
of  their  faith. 

The  New  Testament  charges  faith  with  a  new 
light  and  power.  Jesus  says :  "If  ye  have 
faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  ye  shall  say 
unto  this  mountain  *  Remove  hence  to  yonder 
place,'  and  it  shall  remove  ;  and  nothing  shall  be 
impossible  unto  you."  His  parting  benediction 
to  the  woman  of  the  city,  a  sinner,  was  **  Go  in 
peace  ;  thy  faith  hath  saved  thee." 

Reginald  Campbell  in  expounding  the  "  New 
Theology  "  says,  **  No  man  was  ever  saved  by  be- 
lieving anything."     This  is  either  a  play  upon 

40 


THE  SAVING  FAITH  41 

words,  like  saying  "  No  man  was  ever  saved  by 
a  rope  ";  or  it  is  a  strange  perversion  of  the 
truth.  Salvation  is  a  matter  of  religion,  and 
Mr.  Campbell  again  says  :  *'  Religion  is  the  re- 
sponse of  the  soul  to  the  universe."  This  is  like 
saying  that  filial  piety  is  the  response  of  the 
babe  to  its  mother's  milk,  as  the  mother  pro- 
duced both  the  babe  and  the  milk.  God  creates 
both  the  soul  and  the  universe,  and  there  is  a 
sense  of  dependence  and  craving  which  may  be 
regarded  as  opening  the  way  for  "  the  response 
of  the  soul  to  the  universe."  But  there  is  no 
religion  in  this,  and  no  possible  interpretation 
of  what  we  mean  by  being  saved. 

The  definition  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  is  far 
better.  **  Religion,"  he  says,  "  is  the  response 
of  the  soul  to  truth."  But  while  this  is  better, 
it  still  is  not  adequate.  Religion,  in  fact,  is  the 
response  of  the  soul  to  God.  We  are  God's 
children  and  it  is  unnatural  not  to  respond  to 
Him, — to  think  His  thoughts,  to  enjoy  His  love, 
to  obey  His  will.  Therefore,  religion,  which 
must  be  looked  upon  as  the  natural  property  or 
life,  of  the  soul  that  is  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  is  that  which  permits  and  bears  testimony 
to  the  steady  flow  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul 
of  man,  and  the  growth  of  man  in  the  knowledge 
of  God,  and  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  pur- 
pose of  God  in  his  creation  and  sonship. 


42  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

What  the  Bible  means  by  faith  is  just  this. 
It  is  the  voluntary,  loving,  steadfast  response 
of  the  soul  to  God  ;  and  the  Christian  faith  is 
that  faith  in  God  as  made  known  to  us  through 
Jesus  Christ  His  Son.  When,  therefore,  to-day 
as  Christians  we  have  any  concern  with  the  mat- 
ter of  the  saving  faith,  our  thought  must  be 
directed  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
to  that  kind  of  faith  which  originates  in 
Him. 

In  the  story  from  which  the  text  is  taken,  we 
have  to  deal  with  the  jailor  of  Philippi,  prob- 
ably a  Roman  soldier  and  certainly  an  idolater, 
a  man  who  does  not  know  God.  He  is  sud- 
denly brought  to  the  condition  in  which  he  sees 
his  need.  The  heart  which  is  made  for  God, 
and  cannot  rest  apart  from  God,  gains  a  sud- 
den conception  both  of  itself  and  of  its  deepest 
want.  With  that  awakening  consciousness,  the 
jailor  moved  in  ways  that  he  little  understands, 
but  recognizing,  either  in  the  events  which  are 
transpiring  about  him  or  in  the  character  of  the 
men  with  whom  he  is  dealing,  something  be- 
yond his  apprehension  and  yet  something  that 
strangely  appeals  to  him,  addresses  them  in  the 
familiar  words  of  the  text :  **  Sirs,  what  must  I 
do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Paul's  answer  is  :  "  Believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved."     What  that  means  to  him  is  simple  and 


THE  SAVING  FAITH  43 

indisputable.  It  means  that  he  give  up  his 
heathenism  as  a  rehgion,  that  he  abandon  his 
idols  if  he  have  them,  that  he  turn  from  the  life 
which  that  heathenism  permitted  or  involved, 
and  that  he  accept  the  God  of  the  Christian  to 
whom  he  addressed  himself  for  guidance  and 
for  help.  The  God  to  whose  service  he  is  thus 
summoned  is  a  reality,  personal  and  most  pow- 
erful. It  means  a  complete  change  in  the  man 
within  and  in  his  life  without.  In  this  sense  the 
text  stands  as  a  declaration  of  an  abiding  truth 
applicable  to  all  who  may  ask  the  same  ques- 
tion. 

That  it  does  not  mean  what  it  is  often  in- 
terpreted as  meaning  is  clear  when  one  con- 
siders the  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
uttered.  Believing  in  order  to  be  saved  is  by 
no  means  a  mere  intellectual  process  by  which 
a  man  receiving  light  where  he  was  before  in 
darkness,  or  being  moved  to  views  which  be- 
fore to  him  were  vague  or  unknown,  makes  an 
inward  resolve  that  henceforth  he  will  accept 
that  truth  or  hold  those  views. 

Manifestly  in  relation  to  certain  forms  of 
truth,  there  is  no  choice  for  any  man  to  whom 
they  may  be  presented.  The  truths  of  mathe- 
matics, for  example,  or  the  demonstrations  of 
physical  science.  A  man  may  wonder  at  them, 
may  find  it  difficult  to  understand  or  to  explain 


44  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

them  ;  but  in  proportion  as  they  come  within 
the  range  of  his  mental  apprehension,  he  must 
accept  them ;  and  there  is  no  virtue  in  that 
necessity.  It  is  said  to  him,  ''You  see,"  or 
"  You  hear."  And  when  it  is  clear  that  he  does 
see,  and  does  hear,  there  is  no  excuse  for  his 
not  accepting,  and  there  is  no  virtue  if  he  does 
accept  them.  Possibly  a  ''Brother  Jasper" 
may  deny  the  demonstrated  fact;  then  the 
world  laughs.  But  on  the  contrary,  in  regard 
to  God  and  the  obligations  which  grow  out  of 
our  relation  to  Him,  there  is  always  freedom  to 
accept  or  to  reject.  And  whatever  we  know  or 
come  to  possess  of  moral  character  lies  in  the 
extent  to  which  we  do  accept  or  reject.  There 
is  a  personal  responsibility  which  no  man  can 
deny  or  escape. 

Some  men  rejoice  in  the  certainty  of  mathe- 
matics and  the  demonstrations  of  science,  and 
draw  comparisons  unfavourable  to  religion  ;  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  much  higher  value  at- 
taches to  faith,  looked  upon  as  an  act  of  believ- 
ing which  rests  upon  the  choice  of  the  believer, 
for  it  involves  a  comprehension  of  truth  as  seen 
in  its  moral  relations,  of  ourselves  as  departing 
from  that  truth,  and  of  the  duty  of  changing 
our  entire  attitude  towards  it. 

We  learn  that  God  has  a  purpose  with  us. 
There  is  an  idea  presented  of  what  God  wants 


THE  SAVING  FAITH  45 

of  us.  He  made  us  for  Himself  and  He  made 
us  so  that  we  are  required  to  use  all  our 
faculties  in  working  out  His  plan  in  us  and 
with  us  in  His  universe.  As  we  come  to  know 
what  that  plan  of  God  is  through  the  prompt- 
ings of  our  own  hearts  or  through  the  presenta- 
tion to  us  of  the  truth  of  God,  we  are  summoned 
to  accept  it.  We  must  make  a  choice,  and  that 
making  of  the  choice  is  the  characteristic  act  by 
which  we  prove  our  sonship  with  God,  who  is 
Himself  the  one  perfect  moral  Being ;  for  we 
recognize  at  once  that  that  choice  which  we  are 
called  to  make  carries  with  it  the  determination 
of  our  moral  character. 

In  a  recent  discussion  Professor  Royce  of 
Cambridge,  asks,  ''  What  is  it  that  constitutes 
the  present  moment  as  distinct  from  the  past 
and  the  future?  "  And  he  answers,  *'The  past 
and  the  future  can  be  stated  in  terms  of  time 
and  space,  but  not  so  the  present.  In  the  last 
analysis  the  present  is  the  point  in  existence  be- 
tween the  past  and  the  future  where  it  is  possi- 
ble for  us  to  exercise  the  power  of  choice."  We 
look  back  upon  the  past  that  is  gone,  and  upon 
the  future  which  is  not  yet  attained  ;  on  the 
vantage  ground  of  that  poised  moment  between 
the  past  and  the  future  which  we  call  the  pres- 
ent, we  make  whatever  of  decision  life  seems  to 
require  of  us.     That  is,  in  fact,  all  we  know  of 


46  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  meaning  of  the  conception  of  the  present 
when  we  try  to  present  it  to  our  minds.  In  this 
present  moment  we  are  called  to  choose  God. 
It  is  the  perpetual  choice  for  every  recurring 
present  moment  so  long  as  we  live,  being  what 
we  are,  the  children  of  God.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  do  so  choose  or  so  reject  God  ;  and  in 
so  choosing  Him  or  rejecting  Him,  we  are  per- 
petually shaping  our  life  in  a  course  which  be- 
comes more  and  more  definite  as  we  pass  on 
into  the  ever  oncoming  future.  That  summons, 
therefore,  of  the  present  moment  to  choose  God 
is  simply  the  summons  to  have  faith.  It  means 
to  give  to  God  the  hours  that  are  coming,  which 
belong  to  Him  and  which  He  has  entrusted  to 
us  that  we  may  use  them  in  His  service,  for  this 
is  the  true  interpretation  of  life. 

The  sinner,  then,  is  the  man  who  chooses 
wrong.  He  turns  his  life  away  from  God's 
purpose,  and  he  repeats  that  choice  more  or 
less  consciously  as  it  presents  itself  to  him  in 
successive  moments  of  his  existence.  He 
creates  for  himself  quickly  the  habit  of  deciding 
that  choice  adversely.  There  is  the  abiding  dif- 
ference between  the  saint  and  the  sinner,  between 
him  who  serves  God  and  him  who  serves  Him 
not,  between  the  regenerate  and  the  unregene- 
rate  man,  between  the  good  and  the  bad, 
between    heaven    and    hell.      That    difference 


THE  SAVING  FAITH  47 

turns  all  upon  what  we  know  as  faith,  which  is 
the  predominant  choice  of  God. 

We  sometimes  think  of  this  distinction 
which  rests  upon  the  choice  of  God  and  which 
is  denoted  by  the  word  faith,  as  being  wholly 
artificial,  but  it  is  perfectly  intelligible  to  the 
man  on  the  street.  Bernard  Shaw  says  the 
men  and  women  about  us  *'  are  helpless  of 
better  things  because  they  have  no  will  to  be 
better."  That  is,  it  is  not  a  question  of  intelli- 
gence at  all ;  it  is  a  question  of  this  recurring 
choice,  which  is  with  them  the  perpetually 
wrong  choice  because  they  have  no  purpose  or 
desire  to  make  it  a  different  one.  Maeterlinck  ^ 
says :  "  There  are  on  all  sides  people  to 
whom  thousands  of  events  occur  which  seem 
charged  with  germs  of  heroism  (that  is,  of  a 
better  life),  and  nothing  heroic  appears  when 
the  event  has  passed.  Jesus  Christ  meets  on 
the  road  a  group  of  little  children,  a  woman  of 
evil  life,  or  the  Samaritan  at  the  well,  and 
humanity  arises  thrice  (that  is,  in  each  in- 
stance), to  the  height  of  God." 

There  is  the  significant  fact,  that  we  all  of  us 
are  full  of  promises.  We  have  in  us  the  germs 
of  better  things.  But  the  years  go  by,  and 
they  amount  to  nothing.  Doubt  proves  to  be 
not  only  weakness  but  sin,  for  in  doubt  one 

•  "  La  Sagesse,"  page  25. 


4:8  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD  ^ 

refuses  to  follbw  his  higher  nature  ;  we  con- 
tinue doubters  because  we  find  no  adequate 
impulse  in  us  to  do  differently ;  and  so  we  go 
on  in  the  path  which,  diverse  as  it  may  be  in 
individuals,  leads  us  all  away  from  God  and 
further  and  further  from  the  possibility  of  ever 
attaining  the  ideal  of  which  we  dream.  We 
heed  Jesus  Christ,  we  listen  to  Him,  we  put 
ourselves  under  His  guidance,  and  at  once  the 
ideal  begins  to  become  the  real,  and  we  find 
God.  A  new  power  has  awakened  within  us 
by  which  we  make  the  choice  which  changes 
our  whole  being.  The  interpretation  of  that 
choice  in  its  results  is  the  discovery  that  we 
now  are  sons  of  God.  God  has  come  to  us, 
and  we  have  opened  our  hearts  to  Him ;  the 
one  has  answered  to  the  other.  This  is  what 
the  Bible  means  by  the  "renewed  heart"  and 
the  "  regenerated  soul."  It  is  new  in  every 
thought  and  emotion.  It  is  born  again,  in 
that  it  possesses  powers  which  before  seemed 
not  to  belong  to  it.  The  proof  of  this  lies  in 
the  new  life  which  follows.  That  choice  in  the 
present  makes  life  for  the  future.  The  harmony 
at  once  appears  between  what  is  within  a  man 
and  what  is  without.  The  soul  in  this  sense 
does  answer  to  God's  universe,  for  God  is 
everywhere,  and  hitherto  it  was  only  the  soul 
of  the  sinner  that  gave  Him  no  place.     When 


THE  SAVING  FAITH  49 

that  soul  admits  Him  it  comes  at  once  into 
touch  with  all  else  about  it  in  which  God 
dwells.  Nature  speaks  with  a  new  voice.  The 
morning  stars  begin  to  sing,  and  the  very 
earth  about  us  answers  to  the  song  of  the 
heavens.  Spiritual  life  is  the  life  of  God  in  the 
soul  of  man.  It  comes  through  taking  Jesus 
Christ  into  the  heart,  for  **  God  was  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself."  To  be  a 
Christian  is  to  see  the  supreme  worth  of  God 
as  Jesus  Christ  reveals  Him.  It  is  taking  the 
attitude  of  Jesus  towards  God,  finding  joy  in 
God,  and  in  loving,  trustworthy  obedience  to 
Him,  promptly,  in  every  new  hour  of  de- 
cision, putting  God  first  and  everything  else 
second. 

That  was  the  experience  of  the  jailor  when  in 
the  consciousness  of  that  new  choice  in  his 
heart,  he  abandoned  his  heathenism  and  cast 
aside  his  old  life  as  a  garment,  and  offered 
himself  to  be  baptized.  For  with  this  attitude 
towards  God,  there  is  also  the  taking,  on  the 
part  of  the  believer,  of  Jesus'  attitude  towards 
men.  We  find  him  bringing  his  whole  house- 
hold with  him.  This  compelling  sense  of  the 
need  of  having  those  about  us  share  our  new 
life,  and  of  helping  them  as  we  have  been 
helped,  to  the  new  choice,  is  what  constitutes  a 
sense  of  brotherhood  such  as  can  be  created  in 


50  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

no  other  way.  The  talk  of  human  brotherhood 
is  idle  vapouring,  in  the  face  of  the  passions  and 
temptations  and  selfishness  of  the  common  life. 
In  exceptional  cases  it  is  true  that  it  does 
appear  with  startling  power,  because  every 
one,  in  spite  of  himself,  has  something  of 
divinity  in  him,  even  though  in  many  relations 
he  may  not  have  done  all  in  his  power  to  de- 
clare it,  and  in  the  bitterness  of  his  heart,  may 
even  deny  its  existence.  But  for  all  that,  it  is  a 
permanent  possibility  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
a  permanent  factor  in  the  advance  of  human 
society,  only  so  far  as  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ  leads  men  to  take  His  attitude  to- 
wards their  fellow  men  ;  and  Jesus  becomes  at 
once  the  pattern  and  the  abiding  inspiration  to 
a  brotherhood  which  endures  and  satisfies,  be- 
cause it  brings  men  nearer  to  God  as  an  actual 
experience,  and  shows  them  what  the  real 
meaning  of  that  love  of  God  is  which  works 
out  in  love  one  for  another. 

So,  this  faith  by  which  we  find  salvation 
means  also  taking  Jesus'  attitude  towards  one's 
self.  It  means  the  recognition  on  the  part  of 
the  sinner  that  he  is  a  man  '*  called  of  God," 
that  God  looks  upon  him  as  a  father  does  upon 
a  son,  loving  him  with  an  individual  love,  and 
giving  to  him  not  only  His  interest,  but  setting 
His  heart  upon  him,  and  having  for  him  a  defi- 


THE  SAYING  FAITH  51 

nite  and  particular  plan  of  life  which  is  full  of 
blessing.  Then  the  penitent  believer  discovers 
that  he  has  found  his  life  in  losing  it,  that  is,  he 
has  found  the  love  of  God  for  which  he  was 
made,  deep  in  his  own  soul,  to  be  something 
quite  distinct  from  the  life  which  he  was  living 
in  the  world  about  him.  His  eyes  are  opened 
to  see  beyond  the  veil  which  shuts  out  that  life 
from  this.  He  sees  in  this  life  now  the  begin- 
ning of  that  larger  life  in  which  when  the 
things  of  this  life  have  passed  away  and  per- 
ished, the  things  that  endure  will  come  to  be 
his  forever.  He  discovers  that  he  will  be  kept 
from  sin  by  oneness  with  God  who  has  made 
him  for  Himself  and  who  so  loves  him  that  He 
has  given  His  Son  to  die  for  him. 

Thus  the  answer  to  the  question  **  What  must 
I  do  to  be  saved?"  means  to  do  that  thing 
which  will  put  away  from  us  consciously  and 
deliberately  whatever  has  shut  us  out  from 
God,  and,  seeing  that  Jesus  Christ  has  brought 
to  us  a  knowledge  of  God  otherwise  unattain- 
able, to  trust  and  follow  Him.  The  love  of  God 
for  us  is  made  manifest  in  Jesus  as  it  could  be 
in  no  one  else.  We  have  opened  our  hearts  to 
it  through  Him,  and  accepting  His  guidance 
and  placing  our  hand  in  His,  we  begin  to  follow 
Him  in  that  path  which  we  now  are  assured 
will  lead  us  into  fullness  of  life  because  it  will 


52  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

lead  us  into  fullness  of  fellowship  with  God, 
and  into  fullness  of  fellowship  with  our  fellow 
men,  and  into  the  fullness  of  all  that  is  best  in 
ourselves. 


IV 

THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED 

«« Charge  them  that  are  rich     .     .     .     that  they  lay  hold  of  the 
life  which  is  life  indeed." — /  Tim.  6 :  ly-ig. 

THE  Revised  Version  gives  a  new  em- 
phasis to  a  familiar  text.     For  "eternal 
life,"  we  have  **  the  life  which  is  life  in- 
deed." 

There  would  seem  to  have  been  little  need 
for  Paul  to  exhort  the  rich  of  his  day  to  lay 
hold  on  life.  He  was  writing  to  Timothy,  his 
representative  in  the  Asiatic  cities.  They  were 
the  centre  of  a  great  commercial  and  highly 
luxurious  civilization.  Professor  Dill's  recent 
*'  History  of  Rome  in  the  Time  of  Nero  "  gives 
a  graphic  picture  both  of  the  greatness  of  the 
wealth  and  luxury  of  the  day,  and  of  its  wide 
diffusion.  The  life  of  the  time  was  so  extrava- 
gantly sensuous  as  to  have  become  a  byword ; 
so  that  we  have  no  difficulty  as  we  consider 
the  luxurious  life  in  our  great  modern  capitals 
in  understanding  what  was  the  condition  of 
things  socially  in  the  first  century  in  the  chief 
centres  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  largely  also 

53 


54  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

throughout  the  adjacent  territory.  It  extended 
indeed  to  the  distant  provinces.  Paul  was 
perfectly  familiar  with  it ;  and  now  in  his 
farewell  words  to  the  chosen  disciple  who  is 
to  take  up  and  carry  on  his  work,  we  can 
hardly  conceive  of  his  feeling  the  necessity  of 
urging  Timothy  to  exhort  the  rich  to  make 
the  most  of  life  in  the  terms  in  which  they 
understood  it. 

Years  ago  when  our  own  West  was  new  and 
the  struggle  for  money  was  intense  because  it 
was  scarce  and  hard  to  come  at,  as  measured 
by  the  fact  that  the  legal  rate  of  interest  was 
one  per  cent,  a  month,  Mr.  Beecher,  then  in 
the  prime  of  his  powers,  went  through  the 
West  delivering  a  lecture  on  "  Money,"  in  which 
he  exhorted  young  men  to  possess  themselves 
of  it.  It  seemed  to  those  of  us  who  lived  in 
the  West  quite  a  work  of  supererogation. 
True  as  was  all  that  he  said,  and  keenly  inter- 
esting as  was  his  way  of  saying  it,  it  did  seem 
as  if  there  were  other  messages  of  which  the 
young  men  of  the  West  at  that  time  had  more 
serious  need.  But  we  find  the  Apostle  closing 
his  epistle  with  this  injunction,  that,  though 
they  are  rich  in  this  present  world,  among  other 
things,  they  lay  hold  on  "  the  life  which  is  life 
indeed." 

There  must  have  been  some  urgent  meaning 


THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED     55 

in  the  message  for  the  men  of  that  day ;  and 
doubtless  it  is  there  also  for  us. 

There  are  two  words  in  the  New  Testament 
which  stand  for  life.  The  first "  Bios  "  indicates 
life  in  its  particular  forms  ;  for  example,  life  as 
happy,  or  long,  or  satisfying ;  as  when  Paul  in 
this  same  letter  speaks  of  a  *'  quiet  and  peaceable 
life,"  and  when  Luke  in  his  Gospel  describes 
the  thorns  in  the  parable  as  indicating  the 
**  riches  and  the  pleasures  of  life,"  or,  again, 
speaks  of  the  Prodigal  as  **  having  squandered 
all  his  living." 

The  other  word  **  Zoe,"  means  something 
very  different.  It  is  the  frequent  word  in  John, 
writing  of  Jesus.  **  In  Him  was  life,  and  the 
life  was  the  light  of  men."  **  I  am  the  Bread 
of  Life."  *'  The  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so 
hath  He  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  Him- 
self." Paul  uses  it  in  many  instances,  when  he 
speaks  of  "  everlasting  life,"  or  *'  the  life  which 
is  hid  ^with  Christ  in  God."  This  is  evidently 
something  very  different ;  and  this  is  the  life 
that  he  indicates  in  our  text,  as  that  which  he 
would  have  the  rich  urged  that  they  do  not  fail 
to  get. 

To  help  us  to  understand  what  this  life  is,  we 
will  follow  the  guide  of  men  of  widely  different 
thought  who  have  given  attention  to  it. 

From  Professor  Reuss  of  Strassburg,  for  ex- 


56  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ample,  we  have  the  suggestion  that  it  means 
"a  life  that  deserves  the  name  because  the  per- 
spective of  death  does  not  cast  a  shadow  over 
it." 

Here  is  indeed  a  marked  difference  between 
the  two  kinds  of  life.  The  life  of  the  "  Bios  " 
in  whatever  form  it  presents  itself,  whether 
happy  or  disturbed,  whether  satisfying  or  in- 
complete, is  perpetually  overshadowed  by  death. 
We  are  all  aware  that  a  great  change  is  coming ; 
and  the  great  change  will  put  an  end  to  exist- 
ing conditions.  A  life  that  is  independent  of 
death,  above  and  beyond  it,  must  be  something 
different.  Look  at  Death  either  in  the  ghastly 
form  of  the  horrid  skeleton  of  Italian  art,  or  as 
the  gentle  solemn  figure  of  the  great  English 
painter,  Watts ;  the  result  is  the  same.  It 
sweeps  all  "  Bios  "  away.  The  palace  of  the 
king  and  the  hovel  of  the  poor,  with  impartial 
foot  it  enters  and  carries  everywhere  desolation 
and  emptiness.  The  rich  millionaire  whose  fa- 
miliar figure  was  for  more  than  half  a  century 
present  upon  our  streets,  and  whose  death  the 
other  day  was  the  occasion  of  estimating  the  prob- 
able magnitude  of  the  fortune  which  he  has  left, 
has  inevitably  left  that  fortune  and  passed  out  of 
the  busy  activities  of  the  life  which  had  absorbed 
and  apparently  satisfied  him  for  so  long  a  time, 
as  completely  as  the  little  child  who  was  crushed 


THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED    57 

beneath  a  heavy  vehicle  on  the  crowded  street. 
The  beautiful  palace  on  Fifth  Avenue  of  the 
great  promoter,  with  its  marbles  and  its  price- 
less pictures  and  the  solitary  woman  sitting  there 
in  her  beauty  and  gorgeous  apparel,  is  as  com- 
pletely desolate  because  its  owner  will  no  more 
return,  as  is  the  room  in  the  crowded  tenement 
from  which  the  father  has  just  gone  forth  to  his 
death  under  the  falling  derrick. 

As  related  to  this  aspect  of  life,  death  is  al- 
ways the  same,  and  has  always  been  the  same. 
Prof.  Rhys  Davids  speaks  of  the  "  sorrow  of  be- 
ing at  the  mercy  of  forces  which  whirl  one  re- 
lendessly  upon  the  wheel  of  life"  as  at  the  heart  , 
of  all  the  great  pre-Christian  religions.  It  is  \\ 
testimony  to  the  fact  that  men  always  and 
everywhere  have  felt  themselves  under  the 
shadow  of  death,  and  even  now  we  find  them 
continually  yearning  to  escape  by  escaping  from 
life  itself. 

It  is  something  very  different  that  Paul  pre- 
sents in  his  charge  to  Timothy.  It  is  a  life  that 
has  no  such  shadow,  and  whatever  its  nature,  is 
gready  to  be  coveted,  and  must  be  worthy  of 
any  effort  or  sacrifice.  For  this  reason  alone  it 
demands  an  attention  which  justifies  its  being 
pressed  even  upon  those  who,  though  they 
are  wealthy,  and  think  that  they  possess  all  i 
things  desirable,  are  utterly  without  it. 


58  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

We  turn  in  another  direction,  to  the  late 
Bishop  Westcott ;  and  we  find  this  sentence  : 
**  We  beHeve  and  we  strive  to  spread  the  behef 
that  life  is  as  the  man  is,  that  if  the  man  is  sor- 
did, selfish,  narrow,  mean,  his  life,  however 
affluent,  will  reflect  his  character." 

Here  we  have  still  the  *'  Bios  " — the  life  about 
us  in  its  superficial  relations,  but  as  presenting 
even  in  those  relations  the  picture  of  a  deeper 
and  a  truer  life,  the  life  which  is  a  counterpart 
of  the  man  himself  and  which  will  endure  as  he 
endures.  A  man's  house  reflects  his  culture. 
It  indeed  reflects  himself  so  completely  that  to 
the  observant  eye  it  tells  his  history.  Passing 
from  room  to  room  or  from  floor  to  floor,  one 
sees  even  in  the  furniture  and  the  pictures  the 
story  of  his  own  growth  and  the  refining  of  his 
taste,  no  less  than  the  improvement  in  his  cir- 
cumstances. 

So,  a  man's  ways  are  always  himself.  We 
say :  "  I  did  not  mean  to  be  rude  ;  "  or,  "1  did 
not  intend  to  be  mean  ;"  but  you  were,  all  the 
same  ;  therefore,  you  are.  The  words  that  you 
spoke  or  the  acts  that  you  did  were  yourself. 
You  did  them  because  you  were  capable  of  do- 
ing them,  and  therefore  disagreeable  as  they 
often  are  to  observe,  and  melancholy  as  is  the 
revelation  that  they  make  of  ourselves,  they 
must  be  accepted  as  being  of  ourselves,  for  we 


THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED     59 

have  only  done  that  which  we  were  capable  of  do- 
ing, and  which,  under  the  circumstances,  we  did. 
This  is  so  widely  true  that  thoughtful  men 
everywhere  recognize  it.  A  recent  French 
writer,  Bersot,  speaking  of  Arcachon  and  its 
pleasures,  after  a  long  description,  says :  **  As 
for  happiness,  why,  there  as  everywhere  else 
you  must  yourself  bring  it  with  you."  Scherer, 
commenting  on  the  statement,  says  the  same 
truth  applies  even  to  institutions  and  the  forms 
of  civil  society.  They  depend  upon  what  men 
bring  with  them.  Our  Anglo-Saxon  history 
abounds  in  evidence  to  the  same  effect.  The 
respect  for  law,  the  dignity  of  the  person,  the 
standards  of  conduct  and  of  morals,  even  the 
conventions  of  life  and  the  methods  of  doing 
business,  all  are  witness  to  the  character  which 
we  regard  as  typical  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  every- 
where. We  can  adopt  Westcott's  phrase,  there- 
fore, and  believe  that  **  life  is  as  the  man  is,"  and 
that  it  is  worth  while  to  live  so  as  to  preserve 
and  to  express  in  one's  self  what  is  best.  In  do- 
ing this,  we  come  at  Paul's  conception  of  the  life 
which  is  ''  life  indeed."  It  is  the  perpetuation 
of  what  is  best  in  man  as  a  child  of  God,  a  man 
living  with  a  purpose  of  being  true  to  his  inher- 
itance, and  of  working  out  in  himself  that  rep- 
resentation of  God  which  is  worthy  of  his  divine 
parentage. 


60  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Some  one  wrote  to  Mr.  Gladstone  towards 
the  close  of  his  long  life :  "  You  have  so  lived 
and  wrought  that  you  have  kept  the  soul  alive 
in  England."  It  was  great  praise.  It  meant 
that  with  all  the  glamour  of  life  amid  which  he 
lived, — its  titles,  its  pleasures,  its  opportunities 
of  wielding  great  power  and  winning  great 
honours,  he  had  had  before  his  mind  *'  the  life 
that  is  life  indeed,"  and  had  so  lived  as  to  make 
England  recognize  its  reality,  and  to  help  the 
people  of  England  attain  to  something  of  its 
possession.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  so  far  obedient 
to  the  injunction  of  the  Apostle,  and  his  splendid 
career  is  for  us  a  translation  of  the  exhortation 
of  the  Apostle  into  the  most  compelling  terms 
of  modern  life. 

Turning  to  still  another  of  the  thinkers  of  our 
day  who  have  recently  departed,  we  find  another 
statement  in  the  words  of  Matthew  Arnold,  which 
widens  our  thought.  He  says  :  "  The  kingdom 
of  God,  the  grand  object  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
grand  object  of  Christianity,  is  mankind  raised 
as  a  whole  into  harmony  with  the  true  and 
abiding  law  of  man's  being,  living  as  we  were 
meant  to  live." 

Here  is  the  picture  of  a  refined  and  uplifted 
society  in  which  all  the  members  recognize  that 
they  belong  as  a  whole  not  only  to  one  another 
but  to  God,  and  that  God  has  a  purpose  for 


THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED     61 

them  individually  and  collectively,  and  that  He 
has  written  that  purpose  as  an  abiding  law 
which  governs  man's  being,  if  he  will  but  recog- 
nize it  and  make  use  of  it.  There  is  a  plan  and 
there  is  a  law,  and  we  are  meant  to  live  accord- 
ing to  the  one  and  by  the  help  of  the  other. 
This  is  exactly  PauPs  conception  which  he  put 
into  the  word  **  Zoe  "  and  which  he  describes  as 
"  the  life  that  is  life  indeed."  He  speaks  of  it  in 
his  letter  to  the  Romans  as  "the  law  of  the  spirit 
of  life  in  Christ  Jesus."  It  indicates  a  life  which 
is  both  present  and  eternal.  It  realizes  itself  in 
man  as  he  is  ;  and,  indifferent  to  death,  it  reaches 
into  the  yet  unrevealed  life  which  lies  beyond ; 
and,  here  and  there  alike,  it  reveals  God's  pur- 
pose and  God's  plan  of  human  existence.  It 
makes  this  life  not  a  probation  merely,  in  antic- 
ipation of,  nor  a  portal  simply  to  furnish  en- 
trance to,  the  life  beyond,  but  it  makes  it  a  true 
part  of  that  life.  It  gives  dignity  to  every 
moment  of  earthly  existence.  It  crowds  upon 
us  the  supreme  significance  of  every  choice 
which  we  are  called  to  make  as  having  its  effect 
upon  our  character,  and  so  having  its  effect 
with  relation  to  the  life  that  is  everlasting. 

The  supreme  question  becomes  at  once, 
**  How  can  I  live  this  life  ?  "  When  we  ask  that 
question  we  find  in  our  hearts  that  we  not  only 
are  not  living  that  life  as  it  should  be  lived,  but 


62  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

in  the  midst  of  the  pressure  of  temptation 
without,  and  the  confusion  of  temptation 
within,  we  do  not  sufficiently  care  to  live  that 
life,  or  to  make  any  effort  to  do  so.  Indeed,  if 
we  will  but  be  honest  with  ourselves,  we  find 
that  we  are  in  rebellion  against  that  life  and  its 
obligations.  We  speak  of  ourselves  as  sinners, 
but  we  discover  that  sin  is  largely  lawlessness, 
according  to  the  Old  Testament  tongue,  that  is, 
resistance  to  this  higher  law  of  our  being  which 
we  not  only  do  not  obey,  but  which  we  do  not 
care  even  to  regard. 

We  need  at  this  time  at  the  very  beginning 
of  our  thought  of  ourselves  in  relation  to  "the 
life  that  is  life  indeed  "  an  outside  help, — help 
from  God  Himself  to  overcome  the  lawlessness 
which  has  won  such  a  firm  hold  upon  our  very 
nature.  It  dawns  upon  us  how%  not  for  the  rich 
only,  but  for  us  all,  there  is  supreme  occasion 
for  the  Apostle's  injunction.  He  tells  Timothy 
to  exhort  the  rich  not  to  be  arrogant  and  self- 
confident,  to  set  their  hope  not  on  the  things  of 
this  world  but  on  God,  for  only  as  God  comes 
even  to  their  help,  with  all  their  wealth,  and 
with  all  their  power,  and  with  all  the  fullness  of 
the  life  which  they  enjoy  and  seem  to  possess, 
have  they  any  hold  whatever  on  "  the  life  that  is 
life  indeed  ; "  and  that  these  things  in  which  they 
trust  and  of  which  they  possess  themselves  are 


THE  LIFE  THAT  IS  LIFE  INDEED     63 

indeed  the  very  things  which  most  hinder  their 
attaining  to  that  Hfe.  We  all,  like  them,  each 
to  the  measure  of  his  opportunity  and  under  the 
pressure  of  the  temptations  which  are  peculiar 
to  his  own  experience,  are  in  the  same  confusion, 
and  are  bound  by  the  same  fetters.  We  all, 
whether  rich  or  poor,  need  to  come,  as  Nico- 
demus  did,  to  Christ,  and  ask  Him  the  same 
question :  what  must  we  do  that  we  may 
lay  hold  on  this  eternal  life  ?  And  His  answer 
to  the  Jewish  Rabbi  is  the  answer  for  us  all : 
"  He  that  believeth  hath  life,  and  he  that  be- 
lieveth  not  hath  not  life."  In  other  words,  only 
as  men  realize  their  need  and  the  utter  failure 
of  their  attempt  at  finding  life  in  the  fullness  of 
an  earthly  life  whose  sufficiency  is  in  the  things 
which  they  possess,  do  they  turn  to  God  seek-  *  \ 
ing  that  help  without  which  the  inevitable  death 
will  come  as  the  final  destruction.  The  things 
that  perish  in  the  using  are  not  life.  They  but 
reflect  one's  self,  and  we  do  not  want  ourselves 
perpetuated,  if  that  self  is  to  be  the  present  self,  1 1 
with  its  weaknesses,  its  passions,  its  tempta- 
tions, its  guilt,  its  abiding  regret  of  the  things 
we  have  done  that  we  ought  not  to  have  done, 
and  the  things  we  have  left  undone  that  we 
ought  to  have  done.  We  know  that  "  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death,"  and  that  "  eternal  life  is 
the  gift  of  God."     We  want,  therefore,  God  to 


^1 


64  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

give  us  that  gift.  He  offers  to  do  so,  and  the 
exhortation  that  comes  to  us  to-day  is  that  we 
lay  hold  of  it,  and  with  grateful  hearts  accept 
it  through  Jesus  Christ,  who  brought  to  us  the 
knowledge  of  God  and  the  knowledge  of  life. 


THE  PARADOX  OF  LIFE 

"  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  My  sake  shall  find  iV—Mait.  lo  :  sg. 

TO  the  Christian,  life  is  neither  a  tragedy 
nor  a  farce,  for  God  is  in  it  all.  But 
in  many  aspects,  it  is  a  paradox. 

A  paradox  is  a  statement  which  seems  contrary 
to  common  sense  but  which  nevertheless  is  true. 
The  old  epitaph,  "■  What  I  spent  I  have,  what  I 
kept  I  lost,  what  I  gave  I  kept,"  and  Jesus' 
word,  ''  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  which  he  possesseth,"  and 
again  *'  Unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
and  he  shall  have  abundance;  but  from  him 
that  hath  not,  even  that  which  he  hath,  shall 
be  taken  away  "  are  paradoxes.  So  also  is  the 
text :  "  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it, 
and  he  that  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall 
find  it." 

Life  itself  is  a  paradox,  for  men  seem  to  live, 
when  in  fact  they  are  dying,  they  seem  to 
gain,  when  in  fact  they  are  losing,  they  seem 
to  win,  when  in  fact  they  are  defeated.     For 

65 


66  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

this  reason,  as  long  as  men  have  lived  on  this 
globe,  life  has  been  interesting,  and  not  easy  to 
understand.  Indeed,  it  is  a  perpetual  challenge 
even  in  its  simplest  forms ;  it  always  presents 
itself  as  a  mystery  and  unfolds  in  forms  of  para- 
dox. 

From  the  Christian  standpoint,  there  is  the 
paradox  of  sacrifice.  **  If  any  man  would  come 
after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his 
cross  daily  and  follow  Me  "  is  our  Lord's  com- 
mand. He  brought  life  in  its  fullness,  and  at 
once  He  talks  of  its  abandonment.  The  charm 
of  life  is  an  abiding  inspiration  and  always  an  ef- 
fective one.  Here  is  a  summons  to  turn  aside 
from  what  is  pleasurable.  The  obvious  scheme 
of  life  is  that  of  culture,  or  self-realization.  We 
call  it  Hellenism,  for  the  Greek  in  his  best  days 
gives  us  the  type.  If  you  have  a  talent, — 
music,  art,  invention,  business,  whatever  it  may 
be — make  the  most  of  it.  Realize  yourself. 
Recognize  that  you  have  an  individuality,  which 
means  an  endowment.  Therefore,  improve 
your  distinctive  possessions.  In  so  doing  you 
make  your  best  contribution  to  the  world  about 
you  while  you  do  the  most  for  yourself.  Say 
to  every  demand  which  would  turn  you  aside, 
"  Why  should  I  ?  "  You  have  both  the  duty 
and  the  privilege  of  choice.  There  is  a  phys- 
ical "  me,"  a  social  **  me,"  and  a  spiritual  "  me." 


THE  PARADOX  OF  LIFE  67 

These  often  conflict.  The  problem  always  be- 
fore us  is  how 

"  To  move  upward  working  out  the  beast 
And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die." 

This  is  the  question  pressing  upon  us  all. 
Training  is  necessary  for  this.  Therefore,  we 
seek  the  training.  Discipline  is  the  condition 
of  success.  Therefore,  we  endure  discipline. 
We  win  self-culture  by  self-denial.  The  measure 
of  every  act,  the  test  of  every  value  is  its  rela- 
tions to  the  fullness  and  sufficiency  of  our  own 
attainments.  In  other  words,  from  the  stand- 
point of  visible  life,  everything  turns  on  what 
we  may  call  success,  that  is,  upon  the  smooth- 
ness and  the  efficiency  with  which  we  are  able 
to  develop  our  own  especial  gifts  or  possessions. 

Now,  over  against  this  Jesus  says  :  "  Except 
a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it 
abideth  by  itself  alone,"  and  He  finds  here  the  true 
law  of  life  in  its  finest  and  largest  relations.  In 
other  words,  the  obvious  is  not  true.  The  para- 
dox stands  out  with  compelling  power.  There 
is  a  finer  culture,  a  nobler  victory,  a  higher  de- 
velopment to  be  won  than  along  the  lines  which 
present  themselves  so  obviously. 

The  law  of  this  higher  life  is  that  we  are  to 
win  by  losing.  We  are  to  do  without  if  we 
would  truly  possess.     We  can  only  really  find 


68  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ourselves  by  sacrificing  ourselves  and  making 
self  entirely  second  in  the  motives  by  which  we 
are  governed.  The  fine  saying  of  the  Japanese 
Samurai,  "To  be  defeated,  therefore  to  con- 
quer,'* begins  to  be  intelligible.  History  seems 
to  declare  its  absurdity.  Victory  rides  with 
the  heavy  battalions  and  the  big  guns,  and  con- 
tinually perches  on  their  banners.  To  be  weak 
means  to  suffer,  and  the  older  the  race  becomes 
and  the  more  advanced  its  progress,  the  more 
loudly  it  proclaims  its  gospel  of  success. 

But  over  against  this  stands  the  truth  every- 
where illustrated  in  the  individual  that  the  law 
of  sacrifice,  that  is,  the  surrender  of  the  present 
good,  the  turning  aside  from  the  selfish  purpose, 
the  exalting  of  the  unseen  over  the  seen,  even 
losing  one's  life  in  devotion  to  a  higher  good, 
has  been  the  method  of  making  that  higher 
good  real,  and  also  of  attaining  it ;  and  indeed 
is  the  only  method  by  which  the  individual,  and, 
in  so  far  as  he  is  an  element  of  it,  the  race,  can 
attain  to  that  perfection  and  fullness  of  character 
and  of  life  which  corresponds  to  the  ideal  which 
is  hidden  deep  in  every  heart.  However  great 
the  reputation  that  may  be  won  or  the  success 
that  is  achieved  on  selfish  lines,  we  all  feel  the 
failure  of  the  life  which  does  not  recognize  this 
law  of  self-sacrifice. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  story  of  his  life, 


THE  PARADOX  OF  LIFE  69 

which  he  wrote  when  at  the  height  of  his  great 
reputation,  Herbert  Spencer  has  a  chapter  on 
"  A  Grievous  Mistake."  It  is  the  account  of  the 
only  occasion  in  his  life  when  he  was  induced, 
as  he  himself  says,  to  give  active  support  to  a 
purely  philanthropic  movement.  In  this  in- 
stance it  was  for  the  protection  of  the  weaker 
peoples  with  whom  England  comes  in  contact. 
He  regrets  it  and  thinks  it  was  not  only  a  griev- 
ous mistake  but  one  to  be  held  notable  in  all 
his  experience  because  it  was  not  promotive  of 
his  own  individual  health,  and  possibly  did  some 
harm  to  it.  Whether  it  was  wise  or  not  from 
the  standpoint  of  health,  the  way  in  which  he 
describes  it,  and  his  whole  attitude  towards  it, 
mark  a  selfish  aspect  of  life  which  casts  a 
shadow  over  his  otherwise  great  reputation,  and 
makes  one  feel  how  complete  is  the  failure  of 
any  life,  judged  by  the  higher  standard,  when  it 
does  not  recognize  the  law  of  sacrifice  and  the 
demand  for  unselfishness,  especially  if  one  would 
really  play  any  large  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world. 

Life  presents  also  to  us  the  paradox  of  serv- 
ice. As  Jesus  put  it,  "  Whosoever  would  be- 
come great  among  you  shall  be  your  min- 
ister, and  whosoever  would  be  first  among 
you  shall  be  your  servant."  Men  have  a  nat- 
ural and  general  ambition  to  serve  God  and 


70  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

men,  and  to  make  life  large  by  making  it  profit- 
able. When  a  rich  man  dies  who  has  been  a 
great  merchant  or  banker,  the  world  points  to 
what  it  calls  his  great  success.  He  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  accumulated  capital  of  the  world 
and  to  its  industries.  Many  have  been  depend- 
ent upon  him  for  daily  bread,  and  because  of 
his  labours  it  is  conceivable  that  many  in  the 
years  to  come  will  be  profited.  But  for  all  that, 
the  chief  measure  of  his  success  is  found  in  what 
he  has  done  for  himself,  and  in  the  property  he 
has  left  to  those  who  are  his  natural  heirs.  All 
feel  the  limitations  of  such  service,  however 
great,  or  however  extensive  the  business  which 
has  been  created.  The  true  measure  is  found 
when  we  compare  it  with  a  ministry  of  teach- 
ing, or  of  healing,  or  of  sacrificial  leadership, 
such  as  that  of  Lincoln,  or  of  his  great  secretary, 
Stanton,  both  of  whom  had  "  the  glory  of  dying 
poor.''  The  world  is  already  profiting  beyond 
measure  by  the  arrest,  if  not  the  complete  anni- 
hilation, of  certain  fearful  diseases  like  yellow 
fever  and  the  plague,  because  of  the  heroic 
sacrificial  service  of  a  few  doctors  who  here  and 
there  have  gone  into  the  enemy's  camp  and 
fought  a  fight,  sometimes  at  the  price  of  their 
own  lives,  by  which  the  secret  of  the  disease  has 
been  discovered  and  the  true  method  established 
by  which  it  is  to  be   successfully   overcome. 


THE  PARADOX  OF  LIFE  n 

Now  and  again  we  see  some  great  teacher  who 
for  years  has  turned  aside  from  the  prizes  and 
occupations  and  even  pleasures  of  the  common 
life  to  devote  himself  to  the  education  of  the 
young  who  came  under  his  instruction,  or  to  re- 
fine and  civilize  and  make  fruitful  the  methods 
by  which  education  is  secured, — some  Froebel, 
or  Pestalozzi,  or  Thomas  Arnold,  or  Edward 
Bowen,  or  President  Harper  of  Chicago  Univer- 
sity, who,  stricken  with  fatal  disease,  worked  on 
with  unrelaxing  energy  to  complete  his  task 
until  he  surrendered  to  death.  After  the  same 
fashion.  Christian  missionaries  are  to  be  found 
in  all  the  darker  parts  of  the  earth,  forsaking 
the  delights  of  home  and  native  land,  living 
among  savages,  everywhere  busy  in  creating 
languages,  literature,  civilization,  establishing 
homes,  giving  life  to  people  otherwise  without 
it,  and  all  with  no  thought  of  gain  or  other  in- 
spiration than  that  of  sacrificial  service. 

Before  such  lives  as  these,  we  all  recognize 
the  truth  of  the  paradox  that  the  true  leader  of 
men  is  the  one  who  is  most  completely  the 
servant  of  others,  finding  his  life  by  losing  it. 
He  is  the  servant  of  all,  therefore  the  greatest 
of  all. 

Again  we  turn  to  Herbert  Spencer  and  read 
the  story  of  his  talk  with  Huxley  towards  the 
end   of  his  life  when  he  said  :     **  It  seems  all 


Y2  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

one  can  do  is  to  make  his  mark  and  die,"  to 
which  Huxley  replied  :  "  It  is  not  necessary  to 
make  your  mark.  All  one  needs  to  do  is  to  give 
things  a  push."  Forgetting  one's  self  and  doing 
something  for  the  service  of  others  is  the 
noblest  and  best  contribution  that  any  one  can 
make  to  life. 

Then  there  is  also  in  life  the  strange  paradox 
of  the  ideal.  **  The  things  that  are  seen  are 
temporal,  but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are 
eternal."  The  things  seen  are  houses  and 
money  and  fame  and  applause.  These  are 
all  very  real  and  for  the  time  very  absorbing 
and  very  satisfying.  Can  the  unseen  be  more 
valuable  ?  Jesus  said  at  the  end  of  His  minis- 
try :  ''  I  have  finished  the  work  which  Thou 
gavest  Me  to  do."  He  had  none  of  these 
things,  and  yet  there  was  the  note  of  victory 
and  the  sense  of  an  attained  ideal.  That  ideal, 
we  recognize,  always  dominates  the  real.  It  is 
that  element  of  life  without  which  it  ceases  to 
be  life  in  any  large  true  sense.  It  becomes 
existence,  it  is  true,  but  existence  that  is  dull 
and  commonplace  and  sordid  and  in  no  sense 
satisfactory.  This  is  Jesus'  teaching  through- 
out :  **  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it." 
The  vision  of  better  things  was  always  before 
Him.  Life  is  a  growth  ;  therefore,  it  involves 
death.     Life  is  a  victory  ;  therefore,  it  involves 


THE  PARADOX  OF  LIFE  n 

sacrifice.  Intellectual  life  is  not  acquiring,  so 
much  as  it  is  giving  out,  and  the  power  of  giv- 
ing out  is  in  large  degree  the  measure  of  all 
possible  attainment.  Hoarding  seems  every- 
where to  be  wasting.  We  receive  that  we  may 
give.  We  love  because  we  are  loved.  We 
give  ourselves  for  men  because  Jesus  Christ 
gave  Himself  for  us.  Character  is  made  by 
denying  one's  self,  and  character  is  the  finest 
fruitage  of  life.  Suppose  Jesus  had  turned 
away  from  life  because  of  the  demand  for  sacri- 
fice or  service  or  the  pressure  of  what  we  call 
the  realities  ;  how  complete  would  have  been 
His  failure  and  how  litde  the  world  would  have 
gained  1 

If,  therefore,  we  would  find  our  lives,  here 
is  at  once  the  method  and  the  test.  Do  I 
appreciate  the  significance  of  the  paradox? 
The  choice  that  is  presented  to  me  may  at  any 
time  be  of  the  immediate  good,  of  the  personal 
advantage,  of  the  thing  which  lies  close  at 
hand.  But  the  paradoxical  alternative  is  sure 
to  be  opposed  to  it,  in  the  higher  advantage, 
the  more  enduring  good,  the  finding  of  the 
truer  life  which  lies  in  turning  from  the  tempt- 
ing gain  and  accepting  instead  the  self-sacri- 
fice, the  unselfish  service,  the  choice  of  what 
seems  often  visionary  because  it  is  so  truly  the 
ideal. 


U  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

What  are  the  real  marks  of  failure  in  life  ? 
Self-seeking,  claiming  always  the  best  that  is 
at  hand,  rushing  for  immediate  advantage,  sur- 
rendering to  the  ways  of  the  street  because 
others  do  the  same,  letting  the  other  fellow  care 
for  himself  because  we  have  enough  to  do  in 
caring  for  ourselves.  All  these  are  of  that 
finding  of  life  which  shall  surely  lose  it. 

And  where  lies  the  highest  success  ?     In  the 

sense  of  duty  done,  of  self  forgotten,  and  God 

•      and  men  served,  for  these  have  always  helped 

If    men  onward   and   upward   and   have  secured 

whatever  we   recognize  as  enduring  good  in 

human  history. 

There  is  something  in  every  heart  that  re- 
sponds to    the  song  of    Teckla  in   Schiller's 


tragedy : 


I  have  tasted  earthly  bliss, 
I  have  lived  and  loved."  ^ 


When  one  has  really  known  the  joy  of  the  true 
life  which  springs  from  sacrificial  love,  one  has 
indeed  tasted  the  highest  happiness  and  learned 
something  of  the  real  meaning  of  life. 

*  /cA  habe  genossen  das  erdische  Gluck,  ich  habe  gelebt  und 
giliebt. 


VI 

THE  MORAL  VALUE  OF  ANTIPATHIES 

"  O  ye  that  love  Jehovah,  hate  evil." — Psalm  gy  :  jo. 

MANY  passages  in  the  Bible  express 
God's  abhorrence  in  terms  almost 
too  strong  for  polite  ears.  He  says 
in  Isaiah :  **  Your  appointed  feasts  my  soul 
hateth."  In  Amos  :  **  I  hate  every  false  way." 
In  Proverbs  we  have :  "  Lying  lips  are  an 
abomination  to  the  Lord,"  and  in  the  Psalms : 
*'  I  hate  and  abhor  lying."  These  instances 
might  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 

Over  against  this  may  be  set  Lord  Chester- 
field's description  of  the  moral  degeneracy  of 
his  times :  "In  court  you  may  expect  to  meet 
connections  without  principles,  enmities  without 
hatred,  honour  without  virtue,  appearances 
saved  and  realities  sacrificed,  good  manners 
and  bad  morals." 

God  has  evidently  given  to  what  we  may  call 
moral  antipathies  a  value  not  always  under- 
stood. The  phrase  *'  righteous  indignation  " 
is  often  used  to  cover  very  unrighteous  passion. 
Nevertheless,  the  strength  of  one's  repugnance 

75 


76  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

to  certain  things  and  the  heat  of  one's  antago- 
nism to  certain  doings  stand  closely  related  to 
the  strength  of  one's  moral  convictions.  It  is  true 
that  that  splendid  Roman  Stoic  and  gentleman 
Thraseas,  said  he  feared  to  hate  sin  too  much 
lest  he  should  hate  the  sinner.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  a  wholesome  feeling  in  certain  repug- 
nances and  antipathies  in  which  we  may  be 
conscious  of  sharing  God's  feelings  ;  so  much 
so  that  attention  can  be  given  to  the  text  with- 
out fear  that  in  these  days  we  shall  be  carried 
over  the  border  line  between  hating  sin  and 
hating  the  sinner. 

It  is  an  old  distinction  which  has  long  since 
been  recognized  as  not  only  possible,  but  desir- 
able, and  which  lay  very  close  to  that  early 
teaching  upon  which  civil  society  was  to  be  es- 
tablished. Plato  in  the  Republic  points  out 
that  it  is  the  function  of  society  by  a  carefully 
regulated  education,  to  implant  right  instincts 
and  antipathies  in  the  growing  mind  of  the 
child  at  a  time  when  he  cannot  know  the  reason 
of  things,  in  order  that  as  the  mind  develops  it 
may  recognize  the  right  reason  by  a  certain 
inner  kinship,  and  may  welcome  truth  as  a 
friend. 

There  are  many  suggestions  in  nature  of  the 
value  of  repugnances.  Pain,  for  example,  to 
which  all  living  things  have  repugnance,  is  in 


MORAL  VALUE  OF  ANTIPATHIES    77 

the  plan  of  nature,  protective.  It  is  always  to 
warn  against  oncoming  danger,  the  warning  to 
which  repugnance  gives  prompt  response.  It 
is  notable  that  pain  diminishes  greatly  in  normal 
life,  or  altogether  ceases,  when  it  has  no  further 
value  as  warning.  The  hare  will  cry  when  the 
hound  is  close,  but  when  actually  in  the  jaws  of 
the  hound  its  cry  ceases  and  it  will  lie  perfectly 
quiet  even  though  badly  maimed.  The  cry  of 
the  horse  frightened  by  the  noises  and  dangers 
of  battle  is  proverbial  for  the  terror  it  indicates, 
but  a  badly  injured  horse  will  hobble  about  on 
a  broken  leg  and  graze  as  if  its  wound  was  of 
no  moment.  The  awful  fear  of  possible  injury 
has  apparently  subsided  entirely  when  the  in- 
jury is  actual.  In  man,  pain,  for  example  in  a 
tooth,  is  not  a  punishment,  but  a  warning,  that 
the  tooth  may  be  cared  for  for  the  sake  of  its 
preservation.  The  whole  system  of  pain  in 
natural  life  seems  to  correspond  to  this  expla- 
nation. The  same  is  true  of  distasteful  odours. 
Their  purpose  apparently  is  to  give  warning 
against  taking  into  the  stomach  articles  of  food 
that  are  pernicious.  Many  caterpillars  and  in- 
sects, for  example,  that  are  poisonous  to  birds,  |  \ 
possess  an  odour  which  warns  off  the  bird  and 
thus  guards  against  the  danger.  This  warning, 
it  is  true,  is  not  universal,  but  it  is  sufficiently 
common   in  nature  to  show   the  place   which 


78  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

repugnances  and  antipathies    are   intended  to 
fill. 

When  we  rise  to  the  moral  life,  the  same  is 
true  in  a  sense  perhaps  more  distinctly  marked. 
God  has  given  us  certain  repugnances  and  an- 
tipathies which  growing  refinement  and  culti- 
1  vation  of  life  and  of  character  greatly  strengthen. 
A  certain  beauty  attaches  to  goodness.  Indeed, 
no  virtue  is  without  its  characteristic  charm. 
The  world  is  sensible  to  the  truth  that  doing 
well  is  something  more  than  fulfilling  a  duty. 
It  clears  and  strengthens  the  spirits.  It  opens 
higher  regions  of  thought.  It  establishes  confi- 
dence in  one's  intellectual  qualities.  It  gives  a 
just  sense  of  elevation.  The  opposite  is  equally 
true,  for  wrong  brings  a  sense  of  meanness  and 
inferiority,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out.  It 
depresses  the  spirits.  It  represses  the  thoughts. 
It  awakens  distrust  of  the  judgment.  As  a  con- 
sequence, there  springs  up  in  us  a  moral  antip- 
athy which  is  certainly  a  part  of  that  endow- 
ment with  which  God  has  fitted  us  for  the  work 
He  has  given  us  to  do.  It  is  both  natural  and 
normal.  It  is  given  to  brace  and  to  build  char- 
acter. 

Now  the  important  fact  is  that  we  can  lose 
this  quality  of  the  soul.  Therefore,  the  need  of 
the  summons  of  the  text  as  a  Divine  command, 
and  as  a  warning  constantly  to  be  renewed. 


MORAL  VALUE  OF  ANTIPATHIES    79 

Just  as  frequent  contact  with  what  is  repug- 
nant to  the  life  of  the  body  de-sensitizes  the 
nerves  which  receive  that  contact,  so  that  as  the 
touch  loses  its  power  to  transmit  sensation  when 
it  has  been  frequently  brought  in  contact  with 
overheated  surfaces,  and  as  the  eye  loses  its 
power  to  perceive  delicate  visual  impressions  if 
it  is  subjected  to  too  strong  a  light,  the  moral 
touch  and  the  moral  vision  and  the  moral  hear-  , 
ing  may  all  be  impaired  and  even  destroyed  by 
abuse.  Here  is  the  great  harm  of  reading  bad 
books,  or  hearing  bad  stories,  or  thinking  bad  , 
thoughts,  or  presenting  to  the  mind  through  | 
any  channel  evil  suggestions.  We  lose  the 
sense  of  shock.  We  can  grow  so  strangely  ac- 
customed to  even  the  grosser  forms  of  evil  as 
to  become  entirely  unconscious  of  their  signifi- 
cance or  morally  indifferent  to  their  true  char- 
acter. 

This  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that  in  so 
many  circles  of  society  unmistakably  respectable, 
stories  will  be  current,  language  will  be  used, 
scenes  will  be  witnessed,  books  will  be  read 
which  once  would  have  utterly  shocked  the 
same  people,  and  which,  to  those  outside  their 
circle  and  not  accustomed  to  their  ways,  make 
them  a  continual  surprise.  There  comes  to  be 
set  up  a  conventional  standard  of  judgment, 
which  is  merely  the  expression  of  the  habits  of 


80  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

thought  and  life  into  which  a  given  group  of 
people  have  fallen  without  ever  raising  serious 
question  as  to  the  reason  of  the  habits  which  in 
their  circle  have  become  common,  or  the  judg- 
ments which  have  come  to  be  universally  ac- 
cepted. 

An  elderly  lady  recently  said  of  a  certain 
play :  **  I  am  an  old  woman  and  not  over- 
particular, but  I  wondered  as  I  sat  there  how 
those  young  girls  could  sit  chatting  with  the 
young  men,  their  attendants,  without  blushing 
to  the  roots  of  the  hair  as  the  play  proceeded." 
The  explanation  lies  in  custom.  The  young 
girls,  like  the  elderly  lady  herself,  were  doing 
as  others  did  in  their  circle  of  society,  and  the 
habit  of  witnessing  such  plays,  which  in  the 
older  person  had  required  time  to  gain  suffi- 
cient mastery  over  early  traditions  to  permit  her 
sitting  with  something  of  comfort,  had  not  yet, 
even  in  her,  advanced  to  the  stage  in  which  she 
could  look  without  surprise  upon  young  girls 
who  could  do  the  same  thing. 

The  same  is  true  of  conventional  judgments. 
We  come  to  tolerate  evil  in  any  form;  im- 
purity, selfishness,  gambling,  risque  speech, 
untruthfulness,  little  dishonesties,  petty  mean- 
nesses, hardly  noticing  them  and  not  at  all 
appreciating  their  real  character  because  they 
are  so  common  in  the  life  about  us.     We  be- 


MORAL  VALUE  OF  ANTIPATHIES    81 

come  used  to  them.  We  adjust  our  views  of 
life  to  accommodate  them,  and  we  lose  all  sensi- 
tiveness as  to  their  true  nature,  until  we  lose 
entirely  the  power  to  hate  evil.  With  the  loss 
of  that  power,  the  antipathy  to  evil  becomes  a 
permanent  moral  degeneracy.  This  was  Lord 
Chesterfield's  grievance,  and  marks  the  condi- 
tion into  which  the  society  of  London  in  the 
eighteenth  century  had  fallen. 

Over  against  this  is  the  summons  of  the 
Bible  to  those  who  call  themselves  Christians 
to  cultivate  .that  attitude  of  mind  towards  every 
form  of  evil  which  will  alone  make  a  robust 
Christian  character  possible,  and  without  which 
there  can  be  no  abiding  foundation  for  a  truly 
Christian  society.  A  vigorous  antipathy,  in- 
deed a  positive  hatred,  which,  addressed  to  the 
common  forms  of  evil,  finds  persistent  and 
adequate  expression,  is  a  weapon  put  in  the 
hands  of  men  who  love  righteousness,  with 
which  to  fight  the  battle  of  the  Lord.  It  is  not 
inconsistent  with  that  life  which  suffereth  all 
things  and  is  kind,  for  a  love  that  does  not  dis- 
criminate between  the  evil  and  the  good,  and 
loses  sight  of  moral  distinctions  in  its  dealing 
with  others,  may  become  in  itself  a  promoter  of 
immorality. 

Men  everywhere  need  the  help  which  comes 
from    the   fact   that  in   the  plan   of   God  the 


\ 


82  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard.  It  is  just 
as  much  the  duty  of  a  civilized  and  Chris- 
tianized society  to  see  that  evil  does  not  go 
unpunished,  as  it  is  to  see  that  the  good  is 
rewarded.  Much  of  the  easy-going  public 
opinion  as  to  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong, 
and  much  of  the  obliquity  of  current  life 
even  with  those  who  esteem  themselves  better 
than  others  and  sometimes  call  themselves 
Christians,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  this  distinction 
is  lost  sight  of,  and  that  to  such  a  degree 
modern  society  has  lost  the  power  of  righteous 
indignation  or  has  become  over-sensitive  to  its 
exercise.  The  consequence  is,  that  evil,  and 
even  vice  in  its  grosser  forms,  practiced  by 
those  who  are  prominent  in  the  community, 
goes  unrebuked  and  even  defiant ;  whereas 
popular  indignation  and  outspoken  rebuke  are 
the  evidence  of  a  healthier  public  sentiment 
and  the  necessary  condition  for  a  more  whole- 
some public  life. 

This  indignation  appears  everywhere  in  the 
utterances  of  the  great  prophets  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  was  the  first  step  in  the  reforms 
which  they  were  sent  to  introduce  and  was  not 
found  to  be  incompatible  either  with  the  proc- 
lamations which  they  made  of  the  love  of  a 
merciful  God  or  the  visions  which  they  had  of 
the   glories   of  the  new  life  wherein  dwelleth 


MORAL  VALUE  OF  ANTIPATHIES     83 

righteousness.  When  men  found  themselves 
stung  by  their  rebuke  and  lashed  by  what 
seemed  at  times  the  fierceness  of  the  Divine 
wrath  which  spoke  through  them,  the  nation 
was  aroused  and  the  way  was  opened  for  the  re- 
forms upon  which  the  preservation  of  the 
national  life  and  the  fulfillment  of  the  promises 
of  God  depended.  Those  prophets  have  stood 
from  that  day  to  this  as  the  inspirers  of  all  who 
have  set  their  hearts  to  fear  God  and  work 
righteousness  in  the  world,  who  have  been  will- 
ing to  face  obloquy,  and  to  endure  loss  even 
unto  death,  if  only  they  might  save  the  world 
from  something  of  its  sin.  In  them  has  shone 
the  full  splendour  of  that  humanity  into  which 
God  had  breathed  His  own  image,  and  which 
afterwards  was  redeemed  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Son  of  God  who  gave  Himself  for  the  sins  of 
the  world.  We  walk  feebly  in  their  steps  and 
often  are  found  lagging  far  behind ;  but  their 
method  and  their  word  abide,  and  inspire 
the  heart,  as  well  as  the  psalm,  of  the  man  to 
whom  vision  is  given  to-day.  We  hear  it 
again  in  the  words  of  one  of  our  most  virile 
modern  poets: 

"  I  think  the  immortal  servants  of  mankind 
Who,  from  their  graves,  watch  by  how  slow  degrees 
The  world  soul  greatens  with  the  centuries, 


84  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Mourn  most  man's  barren  levity  of  mind  ; 
The  ear  to  no  grave  harmonies  inclined : 
The  witless  search  for  false  wit's  worthless  lees, 
The  laugh  mistimed  in  tragic  pleasures ; 
The  eye  to  all  majestic  meanings  blind. 

"  O  prophets,  martyrs,  saviours,  ye  were  great, 
All  truth  being  great  to  you.     Ye  deemed  man  more 
Than  a  dull  jest  God's  ennui  to  amuse  : 
The  world  for  you  held  purport.     Life  ye  wore 
Proudly,  as  kings  their  solemn  robes  of  state, 
And  humbly,  as  the  mightiest  monarchs  use." 

And  it  is  in  no  way  inconsistent  with  the 
prayer  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  that  God 
would  make  us  ''  temperate  in  wrath,  and  down 
to  the  gates  of  death  loyal  and  loving  to  one 
another."  Where  there  is  no  moral  indigna- 
tion there  can  be  no  manly  self-control,  no  self- 
sacrificing  loyalty  and  no  self-forgetting  love. 

1  William  Watson. 


VII 

THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD 

«  Behold  the  days  come  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  that  I  will  send 
a  famine  in  the  land,  not  a  famine  for  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water, 
but  of  hearing  the  words  of  Jehovah." — Amos  8  :  ii. 

THERE  is  an  interesting  story  in  con- 
nection with  this  text.  This  is  the 
first  written  prophecy  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, the  first  in  the  series  of  prophecies 
which  are  grouped  together  at  the  end  of  that 
book.  The  author,  Amos  by  name,  gives  us 
his  date.  He  Hved  during  the  reign  of  Uzziah 
in  Judah,  and  Jeroboam  II,  king  of  Israel.  These 
reigns  were  long  and  prosperous,  covering  the 
middle  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ. 
The  astronomers  enable  us  to  fix  one  date  defi- 
nitely as  that  of  the  eclipse  to  which  reference 
is  made  in  the  prophecy.  It  occurred  in  the 
year  763  B.  C. 

We  also  learn  from  the  records  of  the  king- 
dom of  Assyria  that  Assyria  was  at  war  with 
the  king  of  Syria  and  Damascus  for  years, 
beginning  with  the  year  754  B.  C.  The 
prophecy    itself,    therefore,    may    be    applied 

85 


86  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

to  the  last  ten  years  of  the  reign  of  Jeroboam 
from  759  B.  C.  to  749  B.  C.^ 

It  was  a  time  of  great  luxury  and  wide-spread 
prosperity  in  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  The 
country  was  at  peace  with  the  surrounding  na- 
tions. Trade  had  opened,  and  with  the  inevi- 
table outcome  of  abundance  of  wealth  for  a  peo- 
ple of  the  temperament  of  the  Jews. 

Amos  describes  himself  as  a  herdsman  or  shep- 
herd of  the  little  desert  sheep  which  are  found 
on  the  hills  of  Southern  Palestine.  He  was  also 
a  gatherer,  or,  as  it  is  in  the  original,  a  pincher 
of  the  small  wild  figs  which  are  poor  and  scarce 
and  have  to  be  gathered  one  by  one.  We  can 
see  him  lonely,  poorly  clad,  wandering  with  his 
sheep  over  the  hills,  gathering  as  opportunity 
ofTered  his  little  baskets  of  fruit  for  sale  as  he 
had  a  chance,  to  add  to  his  scanty  supplies. 
He  tells  us  that  his  home  was  in  the  little  vil- 
lage of  Tekoa  which  was  situated  on  a  ridge 
some  2,800  feet  above  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
twelve  miles  south  of  Jerusalem.  Travellers  in- 
form us  that  from  that  ridge  one  can  see  the 
blue  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  to^  the  west, 
and  to  the  east  a  glimpse  of  the  Dead  Sea  lying 
in  its  deep  basin  four  thousand  feet  below,  with 
its   ever   solemn   suggestion   of   the   tragedies 

1  This  account  of  Amos  is  based  on  the  graphic  narrative  in  Dr. 
Horton's  "  The  Hidden  God." 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  87 

which  have  been  enacted  on  its  waters.  It  al- 
ways carried  to  the  minds  of  the  dwellers  in 
the  neighbourhood  the  memory  of  the  awful 
destruction  of  the  cities  of  the  plain,  and  its 
water  noxious  to  all  life  was  in  itself  an  em- 
blem of  judgment  and  death. 

To  the  north  a  glimpse  can  be  had  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives  standing  watch  over  the  Holy 
City  and  Mount  Zion  close  by.  To  the  south 
was  the  Arabah  and  the  Desert  of  the  Wander- 
ing. In  the  solitude  of  the  hills,  this  shepherd 
having  always  before  him  a  suggestion  of  the 
history  of  his  people  and  able  to  give  place  in 
his  heart  to  the  memories  of  his  fathers,  can  be 
pictured  brooding  over  the  past  and  wondering 
what  God  had  in  store  for  Israel  in  the  days  to 
come.  The ,  spirit  of  prophecy  had  come  down 
from  time  to  time  upon  single  Israelites  ;  doubt- 
less, the  stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  and 
Samuel  and  many  others  whose  names  have 
since  been  forgotten,  upon  whom  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord  had  rested,  and  who  had  been  used  by 
Jehovah  to  call  His  people  back  to  Himself,  were 
fresh  in  his  heart.  He  was  not  an  educated 
man  and  found  time  abundant  for  communion 
with  his  own  heart  and  for  talking  with  his  God, 
who  was  the  God  of  his  fathers. 

In  these  crowded  days  no  one  finds  time 
either    for  knowledge  of  himself  or  for  much 


h 


88  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

thought  about  God.  It  is  the  price  we  pay  for 
the  privileges  of  our  later  civilization.  The 
days  are  so  full  and  there  is  always  so  much 
waiting  to  be  done  that,  even  when  we  seek  oc- 
casional opportunity  for  rest  and  for  thought, 
the  things  of  the  outer  life  so  crowd  in  upon  us 
that  it  is  well  for  us  if  we  do  not  lose  altogether 
the  power  of  meditation. 

It  was  not  so  in  those  early  years  with  the 
shepherd  as  he  walked  upon  the  hills  of  Pales- 
tine following  his  poor  little  flock  and  keeping 
his  eye  open  for  the  occasional  small  fruit  to 
add  to  his  store,  or  as  he  sat  at  night  with  his 
sheep  about  him,  or  in  the  little  fold,  and  looked 
up  at  the  stars.  God  must  have  seemed  very 
near  to  him,  and  the  thoughts  that  rose  in  his 
heart,  if  not  always  the  voice  of  God,  were  al- 
ways welcome  material  for  his  own  reflections, 
and  found  ample  space  and  time  for  their  un- 
folding. 

It  was  his  business  from  time  to  time  to  go  to 
the  nearest  market,  which  would  be  in  Jerusalem 
or  further  north  at  some  town  in  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  for  distances  in  Palestine  are  all  short, 
to  dispose  of  his  gathered  fruit  or  his  occasional 
lamb  or  fleece  of  wool.  We  can  picture  him  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem  or  Samaria, — a  quiet 
stranger  unnoticed  in  his  somewhat  familiar 
shepherd  garb,  wondering  at  the  luxury  and 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  89 

the  bustle  that  he  saw  on  all  sides,  feeling  a 
stranger  among  his  own  people  and  more  and 
more  impressed  with  their  absorption  in  the 
superficial  life  of  the  town  and  engaged  in  the  ;\ 
eager  occupations  of  business  or  pleasure  which 
were  so  alien  to  his  own  thought. 

The  Spirit  of  God  was  in  his  heart  and  he  felt 
himself  moved  to  speak  as  a  prophet.  We  can 
imagine  how  difficult  it  must  have  been  for 
him  either  to  get  a  hearing  or  to  find  utterance. 

The  man  from  the  country  to-day  who  may 
have  been  something  of  a  prophet  at  home,  the 
Sunday-school  teacher,  the  regular  attendant  at 
worship,  the  well-known  leader  in  prayer,  the 
exhorter  at  the  mid-week  service,  coming  to  the 
great  city  so  readily  loses  his  gift  of  prophecy. 
The  city  overwhelms  him.  He  is  held  by  the 
glamour  of  its  pleasures  or  absorbed  by  its  oppor-  ^  ^ 
tunities  of  business.  He  is  caught  in  the  rush 
of  its  incessant  occupations,  and  quickly  dis- 
covers that  he  has  small  time  and  small  inclina- 
tion for  the  things  which  were  so  precious  to 
him  in  his  country  home.  To-day  such  prophets 
are  about  us  on  all  sides,  but  they  have  lost  their 
gift  or,  at  least,  have  ceased  to  be  conscious  of 
their  calling.  We  have  many  of  them  on  our 
streets  and  not  a  few  as  the  casual  worshippers 
in  our  churches  who  are  altogether  unprepared 
even  to  answer  the  summons  which  is  extended 


90  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

A'- 

f  \  to  them,  to  take  their  place,  to  do  their  part  in 
I     helping  the  cause  of  the  Lord  in  the  great  city. 
I    They  are  awed  and  dazzled  by  the  city.     Its  very 
\    greatness  oppresses  them.     They  become  self- 
conscious  and  forgetful  of  the  power  which  God 
has  promised  to    those    who    will  do  His  will. 
They  find  occupation  for  every  hour  and  excuses 
on  all  sides  for  departing  from  their  old  habits. 
But  Amos  w^as  a  man  from  the  country  held 
by  a  high  impulse.     He  is  overwhelmed  by  what 
he  sees,  and  he  becomes  aware  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  is  upon  him  and  that  he  has  a  message 
which  must  be  delivered. 

His  little  prophecy  that  has  lived  from  that 
time  to  this  and  found  its  place  in  the  sacred 
records  of  his  people  consists  of  three  short  sec- 
tions, the  first  and  second  chapters,  then  the 
third  to  the  sixth,  and  then  the  seventh  to  the 
ninth, — each  with  its  own  separate  message  all 
holding  together  and  leading  to  the  single 
result.  He  begins  with  the  proclamation  of  the 
judgments  of  God  to  fall  upon  the  surrounding 
nations.  Israel  has  entered  into  sympathetic 
intimacy  wdth  her  neighbours  and  is  giving  way 
to  the  temptations  of  the  heathen,  while  she  is 
satisfying  herself  with  the  luxury  and  wealth 
which  are  coming  to  her  from  their  trade  ;  but 
God's  wrath  on  Edom  and  Tyre  and  Moab  and 
Gaza  is  gathering,  and  is  soon  to  fall.     This 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  91 

was  not  a  new  thought  in  Israel,  but  it  comes 
with  a  new  emphasis  and  with  something  of 
startling  surprise  in  days  of  peace  and  great 
prosperity,  when  as  to-day  the  distinction 
between  the  Christian  and  the  world  about  him 
is  fading  away  and  men  find  it  easier  to  believe 
that  after  all,  there  is  not  much  difference  be- 
tween them. 

The  second  section  is  of  a  distinctly  different 
tenor.  The  judgment  of  God  is  in  store  also  for 
Israel.  The  message  is,  *'  You  only  have  I 
known  :  therefore  will  I  visit  upon  you  your  in- 
iquities." It  is  a  new  and  a  startling  declara- 
tion. Hitherto  God  has  been  the  Protector  of 
Israel.  He  has  gathered  her  out  from  among 
the  nations,  has  shielded  and  blessed  her,  and 
she  has  come  to  believe  that  she  is  immune 
from  the  consequences  before  w^hich  others  are 
to  fall.  The  prophet  emphasizes  her  peculiar 
calling.  But  to  the  amazement  of  his  hearers 
he  makes  that  the  ground  of  her  judgment. 
Because  she  had  been  so  blessed  of  Jehovah,  be- 
cause she  is  His  chosen  people,  therefore  will 
He  punish  her  in  the  day  of  her  transgression. 

A  recent  German  commentator  says  that 
Amos  is  *'  one  of  the  most  wonderful  appearances 
in  the  history  of  the  human  spirit."  And  Dr. 
Horton  of  London,  preaching  upon  the  story  of 
Amos,  says,  **  Never  was  there  a  bolder  thing 


I 


92  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

than  for  this  simple  herdsman  of  the  desert  to 
go  into  the  weahhy  and  prosperous  kingdom  of 
Israel  to  say,  *  You  are  prosperous ;  you  are 
luxurious  ;  you  are  religious  ;  you  are  the  people 
of  Jehovah  :  therefore  the  Lord  will  punish  your 
iniquities/  '* 

The  prophet  proceeds  to  denounce  their  relig- 
ion as  a  matter  of  form  and  ceremony.  "  Bring 
your  offerings.  Keep  your  fasts.  But  of  what 
use  are  they  ?  God  is  a  God  of  righteousness 
and  of  truth.  You  simply  mock  Him."  The  re- 
ligion that  He  requires  is  a  religion  of  the  life,  a 
religion  that  before  all  else  means  character,  and 
you  offer  external  worship  instead.  Does  He 
care  how  elaborate  your  services,  how  splendid 
your  sanctuaries,  how  thronged  the  audience, 
when  the  heart  and  the  life  are  not  clean  before 
Him  ?  *'  Because  you  are  His  people,  because 
He  loves  you,  therefore  judgment  shall  come  for 
purification  and  for  deliverance." 

Then  comes  the  third  section  enclosing  our 
text.  A  change  is  coming.  The  days  are  at 
hand  when  "  there  will  be  a  famine  in  the  land, 
not  a  famine  for  bread  nor  a  thirst  for  water, 
but  of  hearing  the  words  of  the  Lord.  They 
shall  run  to  and  fro  and  seek  the  word  of  the 
Lord  and  shall  not  find  it."  At  last  the  Lord 
will  bring  back  the  captivity  of  His  people  **  and 
they  shall   build    the  waste  cities  and  inhabit 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  93 

them.  And  they  shall  plant  vineyards  and 
drink  the  wine  thereof.  They  shall  also  make 
gardens  and  eat  the  fruit  of  them.  And  I  will 
plant  them  upon  their  land  and  they  shall  no 
more  be  plucked  up  out  of  their  land  which  I 
have  given  them,  saith  Jehovah,  thy  God." 

Here  then  is  the  burden  of  the  prophecy.  In 
such  times,  when  prosperity  abounds  and  re- 
ligion degenerates  into  a  matter  of  ceremony, 
and  the  Lord's  people  fall  into  the  ways  of  the 
world,  there  grows  up  a  scarcity  of  hearing  the 
words  of  the  Lordo 

The  word  of  God  is  not  a  book.  There  are 
plenty  of  Bibles  in  the  world  to-day.  Indeed, 
there  never  was  a  time  when  so  many  were  dis- 
tributed. The  printing-presses  of  Christendom 
fairly  groan  with  the  innumerable  volumes. 
Nor  is  the  word  of  God  preaching.  Churches 
abound  and  times  of  prosperity  see  them  built 
and  rebuilt  in  ever  more  magnificent  form. 
The  greater  the  wealth  of  the  community  and 
the  more  easy  and  abundant  its  luxury,  the 
more  gorgeous  become  its  churches,  the  more 
elegant  their  ritual,  and  the  more  eloquent  their 
preaching. 

The  word  of  God  is  the  voice  of  God  in  a 
man's  soul.  As  the  Saviour  put  it:  "Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 
word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God." 


\ 


94  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

It   is   that   voice   which,    through    whatever 
channel  it  comes  and  in  whatever  words  it  de- 
clares itself,  becomes  the  compelling  voice  in  a 
I  man's  heart,  awakening  him  to  a  new  conscious- 

P     ness  of  his  relations  to  his  Maker.     That  is  the 

'  ni  voice  which  grows  dull  and  is  not  heard  in 
ll  times  of  worldly  prosperity.  It  is  in  our  times 
the  voice  of  God  in  the  call  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
sounded  loud  and  clear  for  all  men  and  for  all 
time  in  the  voice  of  Him  who  came  from  His 
Father  to  give  His  life  for  the  world.  The 
sacrifice  was  accomplished.  The  message  was 
delivered.  But  in  times  of  prosperity,  such  as 
we  see  to-day,  Jesus  Christ  is  disregarded. 
There  is  no  place  for  Him  or  for  His  message 

I  in  the  worldly  life.  He  is  crowded  out  and  His 
voice  is  silenced  in  hearts  which  are  stufTed 
with  the  things  of  this  world.  There  may 
]  be  plenty  of  worship,  and  yet  be  a  famine  of  the 
word  of  God.  The  days  are  full  and  life  is 
thronged,  and  there  is  not  much  room  in  the 
minds  of  men.  When  their  thoughts  are  ab- 
sorbed with  other  things  there  is  little  room  for 
Jesus  Christ. 

But  men  cannot  always  live  in  this  way,  and 
the  want  of  the  hearing  of  the  word  of  God  will 
in  time  become  a  famine,  for  men  are  made  for 

f  better  things.     There  is  a  hunger  and  thirst  in 
the  soul  which  will  declare  itself.     No  matter 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  95 

how  great  a  man's  possessions  may  be  in  other 
things,  they  will  not  satisfy  this  deepest  of 
human  needs. 

Some  time  ago,  the  skeleton  of  a  man  and  a 
few  fragments  of  clothing  were  found  in  an 
Arizona  desert,  together  with  a  small  pouch  of 
gold  fastened  in  a  belt.  The  day  had  come 
when  despite  his  gold,  to  get  which  he  had 
staked  his  life,  the  need  of  food  or  water  had 
become  clamorous,  and  he  had  been  compelled 
to  make  the  final  effort  to  satisfy  that  need, 
which  cost  him  his  life.  What  remained  of  him 
was  eloquent  of  the  existence  of  this  need  which 
neither  gold  nor  food  and  water  can  satisfy. 
No  matter  how  much  a  man  may  have  of  the 
things  of  the  world,  this  cry  of  the  soul  for  the 
hearing  of  the  voice  of  God  will  take  on  an  in- 
sistence which  cannot  be  silenced,  and  the  for- 
gotten or  despised  need  will  become  a  veritable 
famine. 

I  sat  in  a  beautiful  parlour  some  years  ago, 
while  a  man  past  middle  life  paced  up  and 
down  wringing  his  hands  and  moaning,  "I. 
knew  it  all  the  time.  I  knew  it  all  the  time." 
The  hour  had  come  in  which  the  voice  so  long 
silenced,  insisted  upon  being  heard,  and  in  that 
hour  everything  else  fell  away  from  his  thought 
under  the  strain  of  a  necessity  which  must  be 
heeded.     "  Tell  me  where  I  may  find  Him,"  be- 


t\ 


1} 


96  THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

comes  the  cry  of  men  such  as  we  are,  who,  no 
matter  what  we  have  been  doing,  or  how  far  we 
j     may  have  wandered  from  our  Father's  house, 
I     are  still  His  children,  and  must  recognize  our 
I      sonship,  and  must  yield  to  the  inexorable  need 
of  our  nature.     Because  God  has  chosen  us  and 
manifested  Himself  to  us  and  sent  His  Son  to 
die  for  us  and  fill  our  lives  with  blessing,  there- 
/ore,  will  He  visit  us  in  our  wanderings  and 
make  us  to  know  both  Him  and  our  necessities. 
When  that  famine  declares  itself,  blessing  is 
not  far  off.     God  speaks  to  the  soul  in  order 
that  it  may  hear  ;  and  hearing,  that  it  may  know 
Him  and  find  life  in  Him.     This  is  the  last  word 
of  the  prophet :  "  The  day  will  come  when  the 
Lord  will  bring  back  the  captivity  of  His  peo- 
ple.'' 

It  is  said  that  Amos  has  no  message  of  the 
love  of  God,  that  we  must  go  to  his  contem- 
porary, Hosea,  for  that.  There  we  have  the 
message  in  its  fullness.  But  Amos  foreshadows 
it.  His  cry  is  a  warning  one.  But  it  is  a  warn- 
ing that  opens  the  way  for  blessing.  The  proc- 
,  lamation  of  the  coming  famine  is  also  the  proc- 
^  lamation  of  the  coming  supply,  and  the  conse- 
quent peace.  Because  Israel  is  the  child  of 
God,  she  is  not  to  be  forsaken.  Because  we 
are  the  lost  sheep  whom  Jesus  Christ  came  to 
seek  and  to  save,  the  cry  of  our  soul  for  the 


THE  FAMINE  FOR  GOD  97 

word  of  God  when  it  is  heard,  will  prove  the 
signal  of  a  blessing  that  is  not  far  off.  The 
summons,  therefore,  is  ''Why  wait?  Recog- 
nize the  need  to-day.  Give  voice  to  the  cry  of 
the  soul.  Ask,  and  you  shall  receive.  Seek, 
and  you  shall  find."  Or,  as  a  fellow  prophet 
put  it:  "Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth  I  come- 
ye  to  the  waters,  yea  drink  wine  and  milk  with- 
out money  and  without  price." 

We  have  to  do  but  the  one  thing  that  is 
necessary,  namely :  recognize  the  need  and 
anticipate  the  famine.  The  supply  is  within 
the  reach  of  every  man  who  will  have  it. 


J     -^ 


VIII 

HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD 

«  And  what  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God." — Micah  6  :  8. 

WE  know  little  of  the  prophet  Micah. 
He  seems  to  have  had  small  con- 
cern for  himself  and  has  only  been 
careful  to  tell  us  that  his  home  was  in  Moreshah 
which  was  a  little  village  on  the  Philistine  plain 
some  twelve  miles  west  of  Bethlehem.  He  is 
without  parent  or  child,  so  far  as  the  record 
goes.  However,  he  gives  us  an  indication  of 
the  time  in  which  he  lived, — the  reigns  of 
Jotham,  Ahaz,  and  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah. 

The  burden  of  the  Lord  is  upon  him  and  he 
tells  what  he  saw  concerning  Samaria  and 
Jerusalem.  His  life  must  have  been  a  toler- 
ably long  one,  and  his  prophecy,  which  was 
spoken  evidently  towards  its  close,  was  de- 
livered near  the  very  end  of  the  eighth  century 
before  Christ.  The  prophecies  of  Hosea  and 
Amos  had  been  spoken  before  this,  and  the 
threatened  destruction  had  already  come  upon 
the  northern  kingdom  of  Israel,  in  the  capture 

98 


HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD      99 

of  Samaria  by  Sargon  and  the  army  of  Assyria 
after  a  three-year  siege,  followed  by  the  de- 
portation of  the  people  into  a  captivity  from 
which  they  were  never  to  return.  The  great 
host  of  the  Assyrians  had  worked  along  the 
coast  down  the  highway  which  led  past  his 
home  to  Egypt,  and  there  the  decisive  battle 
of  Raphia  had  been  fought  in  the  year  719, 
and  the  Egyptians  had  been  defeated.  Later 
the  Assyrian  forces  had  attacked  the  southern 
borders  of  Judah,  capturing  a  number  of  cities, 
and  had  threatened  Jerusalem  itself.  In  answer 
to  the  prayers  of  the  people  under  the  lead  of 
Hezekiah, — a  God-fearing  king, — a  sudden 
and  overwhelming  disaster  had  come  for  a 
time  upon  the  forces  of  the  enemy,  and  the 
story  of  their  destruction  under  Sennacherib, 
their  leader,  was  to  become  the  theme  of  many 
a  future  tale.  What  the  future  had  in  store 
for  the  kingdom  of  Judah  was  not  yet  revealed. 
She  was  tempted  to  seek  to  protect  herself  by 
alliance  with  Egypt  and  possibly  with  other 
neighbours  as  against  the  Eastern  invasion. 
Isaiah  already  had  arisen  as  the  great  prophet 
in  the  city,  warning  the  people  of  the  danger 
of  such  an  alliance,  and  striving  to  turn  them 
back  to  an  abiding  faith  in  Jehovah. 

There  had  been  great  prosperity  for  many 
years  preceding  these  days  of  crisis,  with  the 


100         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

inevitable   results   which   the   earlier   prophets 

had  announced.     Luxury,  and  oppression,  and 

self-indulgence  had  taken  the  place  of  an  earlier 

righteousness.     The  rich   had  sought   alliance 

I      with  men  of  their  own  kind  among  the  heathen. 

fl   They  had  given  their  daughters   to   them   in 

I    marriage.     They   had    established    with   them 

f  business  connections  that  were  profitable  and 

I    widely  extended.     They  had   introduced  their 

I    manners   and  their    morals   into    Israel.     In  a 

If. 

I    word,  they  had  made  the  life  of  Jerusalem  as 
I    much  like  the  life  of  New  York  as  we  can  con- 
I   ceive.     In  their  elect  circles  we  can  hear  them 
I  talking  almost  in  the  language  of  to-day,  dis- 
I  cussing  foreign   *'  Counts,"  frequently   visiting 
\  **  Paris,"    assured   of    large    incomes   with   no 
\  further   labour   than   cutting  off  coupons,  and 
\  striving   hard   to    find    amusement    for   them- 
i  selves    in    the     Bohemianism     of    their    day. 
i  Drunkenness    and    gambling,    with   disregard 
I  for  the  welfare  either  of  others  or  of  the  State, 
J  were   prevalent.     Men  were   living  as  if  God 
were  not,  and  life  had  no  ultimate  responsibil- 
ities. 

Then  it  was  that  a  country  preacher  appeared, 
in  the  form  of  a  prophet.  What  his  previous 
training  had  been,  we  do  not  know.  Other 
prophets,  like  Amos  and  Jeremiah,  were  partic- 
ular to   record   their   own   unfitness   for   their 


HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD    101 

new  r61e ;  but  Micah  seems  to  have  been  ab- 
sorbed with  the  situation  in  which  he  found 
himself,  and  the  compulsion  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  that  had  come  upon  him.  His  name 
signifies  "Who  is  like  God,"  and  that  he  is 
conscious  of  its  meaning  is  suggested  by  the 
play  upon  names  which  appears  in  his  open- 
ing message  and  that  his  closing  word  is  a 
sentence  which  is  but  an  enlargement  of  his  own 
name  :      "  Who  is  a  God  like  unto  Thee  ?  " 

We  can  picture  him  talking  to  people  in  his 
little  village,  stirring  their  hearts,  and  gathering 
there  an  audience  which  told  the  tale  of  his 
strange  eloquence  to  their  neighbours,  until  he 
feels  compelled,  little  prepared  as  he  is,  to  go 
down  to  the  city  and  speak  there  in  its  streets. 
Doubtless,  he  met  Isaiah,  the  eloquent  city 
preacher,  and  found  himself  in  accord  with  him. 
Perhaps  through  his  influence  he  found  access 
to  court  circles.  In  any  case,  he  is  the  only 
prophet  directly  mentioned  by  another.  Jere- 
miah (26 :  i8)  says  that  Hezekiah  heard  him, 
and  was  moved  by  him  to  special  prayer,  which 
led  the  Lord  to  withhold  the  judgment  with 
which  the  city  was  threatened.  False  prophets 
abounded,  and  were  doing  exactly  what  men  in 
public  position  and  even  some  ministers  are 
found  doing  to-day, — going  to  the  capitol  to 
speak  in  the  interests  of  evil  doers,  and  by  elo- 


102         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

quent  sophistries  to  make  it  appear  that  drunken- 
ness and  oppression  and  legalized  gambling  are 
not  the  evil  which  they  are  thought. 

His  message  differs  from  that  of  his  prede- 
cessors. Like  them  he  denounces  the  evil  of 
his  day.  "  Woe  ! ''  he  cries,  "  to  them  that  de- 
vise iniquity  and  work  evil  upon  their  beds  I 
When  the  morning  is  light  they  practice  it,  be- 
cause it  is  in  the  power  of  their  hand.  And  they 
covet  fields  and  seize  them  ;  and  houses,  and 
take  them  away :  and  they  oppress  a  man  and 
his  house."  **They  hate  the  good  and  love 
the  evil,  and  their  prophets  make  my  people  to 
err."  ''  They  cry  peace,  and  they  even  prepare 
war  against  the  Lord."  **  They  build  up  Zion 
with  blood  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity." 
**  Their  leaders  judge  for  reward,  their  priests 
teach  for  hire,  their  prophets  divine  for  money." 

To  them  his  message  is  that  the  Lord  is 
among  them  and  judgment  is  at  hand.  But 
this  is  not  the  burden  of  his  message.  He  has 
a  vision  of  the  future.  God  will  still  do  great 
things  for  His  people.  He  sees  as  in  a  vision 
the  mountain  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  estab- 
lished in  the  top  of  the  mountain.  As  one  look- 
ing across  a  valley  buried  in  the  mists,  he  sees 
the  great  mountain  peaks  beyond,  painted  in 
the  glories  of  the  rising  sun  of  a  new  day. 
Israel  is  to  be  exalted,  and  passing  away  from 


HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD    103 

her  sins  and  her  punishment,  is  to  be  established 
in  the  eyes  of  all  peoples.     As  a  flock  that  has 
been  scattered,  she  shall  yet  have  a  shepherd. 
Bethlehem  which  has  given  David  to  Israel  and 
the  long  line  of  her  kings,  shall  give   still   a 
greater  leader  who  in  the  days  to  come  shall  ap- 
pear as  the  vicegerent  of  God.     The   nations 
shall  see  and  wonder,  and  God  shall  have  com- 
passion upon  His  people  and  turn  again  and 
cast  all  their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the  sea.     He 
cries  out  as  he  ends :  "  Who  is  like  unto  our 
God?" 

In  the  midst  of  this  prophetic  vision,  occurs 
the  text :  **  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thou- 
sands of  rams  or  with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of 
oil  ?  "  You  rich  men  seek  to  compromise  with 
God  by  great  gifts,  or  by  building  churches,  or 
by  establishing  philanthropies,  offering  money 
as  the  price  of  exemption  from  criticism,  and  in 
the  hope  of  escaping  the  final  condemnation. 
Will  any  such  service  deceive  Jehovah,  he  says, 
or  for  a  moment  be  accepted  ?  What  in  fact 
does  the  Lord  require  of  you  ?  I  will  show  you 
what  He  requires.  Nothing  but  this:  "To  do 
justly,  and  to  love  mercy,^  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God." 

1 1  retain  the  familiar  word  of  the  Authorized  Version,  as  it  seems 
to  me  better  to  express  the  real  sense  of  the  text  than  the  "  Kind- 
ness "  of  the  Revision. 


104        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Here  then  is  the  heart  of  the  whole  prophecy. 
What  does  it  mean  ?  The  words  are  very  sim- 
ple, but  let  us  look  at  them  closely. 

"To  do  justly";  manifestly,  first  of  all, 
towards  God.  Israel's  distinction  among  the 
nations  had  been  that  her  God  was  not  as  their 
gods.  Their  gods  were  gods  of  fear,  to  be  pro- 
pitiated by  awful  sacrifices,  and  to  be  held  in 
perpetual  terror.  But  Jehovah  was  to  Israel  a 
God  of  righteousness  and  of  truth,  a  God  whose 
service  was  a  service  of  blessing  and  of  peace. 
He  had  called  their  ancestor,  Abraham,  out  of  a 
far  country  and  had  led  him  by  a  way  that  he 
knew  not,  and  had  talked  with  him  as  a  friend, 
and  had  made  for  him  a  new  inheritance.  He 
had  called  Jacob  up  out  of  the  bondage  of 
Egypt,  had  led  him  through  the  wilderness,  and 
opened  a  path  for  him  through  the  sea  and 
through  the  river,  and  established  him  in  the 
Land  of  Promise.  He  had  called  Moses  from 
the  desert,  and  David  from  his  sheepfolds. 
He  had  delivered  Israel  from  her  enemies 
and  caused  her  to  flow  with  milk  and  honey, 
and  established  peace  in  her  borders,  just  so 
far  and  so  long  as  she  had  been  faithful 
to  her  service  and  had  kept  His  commandments. 
Her  hope  had  always  been  in  Him  and  His 
promise  which  had  never  failed.  The  future 
was  to  be  hers  because  of  the  past  and  because 


HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD    105 

of  the  covenant  with  her  God  in  which  lay  her 
life. 

What  now  does  Israel  owe  to  God  except 
gratitude  and  love,  as  a  heart  that  has  received 
blessing  must  answer  to  the  heart  that  has  be- 
stowed it.  Through  the  long  service  Israel 
had  been  slowly  and  with  difficulty  arriving  at 
this  conception  of  God,  of  His  character,  and  of 
His  service.  It  all  is  clear  to  us,  for  we  know 
in  a  still  larger  and  truer  sense  that  God  is 
love,  and  that  He  so  loves  the  world  that  He 
has  given  His  Son  to  die  for  it.  It  is  far  clearer 
to  us  than  it  could  be  to  them  that  what  God 
has  a  right  to  require  of  every  man  is  response 
to  His  heart.  He  is  no  constraining  creditor 
seeking  the  payment  of  a  debt.  He  comes 
with  no  threats  of  arrest  for  failure  in  power,  or 
will,  to  pay.  The  obligation  under  which  we  are 
is  indeed  a  debt,  but  it  is  a  debt  of  gratitude. 
It  is  a  debt  which  every  heart  that  would  be 
true  to  itself  must  recognize,  and  in  recogniz- 
ing, find  its  true  joy  and  its  true  life.  There- 
fore, the  very  first  thing  that  God  requires  of 
every  man  is  that  he  shall  make  this  response, 
long  before  there  is  any  question  of  service  or 
of  large  relations  to  the  world  about  us.  We 
must  first  settle  this  question  of  what  we  owe 
to  God  Himself.  Then  comes,  however,  our 
duty  to  our  fellow  men,  for  if  we  do  not  love 


106         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

our  brother  whom  we  see,  how  can  we  love 
God  whom  we  do  not  see  ?  If  we  do  not  deal 
justly  with  our  neighbour,  recognizing  all  the 
obligations  to  him,  under  which  we  are  in  the 
common  life,  what  truth  is  there  in  the  declara- 
tion of  our  love  and  of  our  allegiance  to  the 
common  Father  ? 

So  again  with  the  second  phrase :  "To 
love  mercy,"  or  ''  kindness,"  as  the  Revision 
gives  it.  It  is  the  loving-kindness  of  God 
which  leads  Him  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  is  lost.  That  was  a  new  thought  in 
Israel,  that  God  could  forgive  the  sinner,  and 
that  His  love  would  not  diminish  or  be  with- 
drawn even  in  the  face  of  persistent  weakness. 
This  had  been  the  great  message  of  Hosea: 
**  How  can  I  give  thee  up,  O  Israel !  "  In  his 
own  pitiful  experience  with  a  sinful  wife,  that 
prophet  had  been  taught  the  meaning  of  a  for- 
giving love,  and  in  the  strength  of  that  had 
been  sent  by  the  Lord  with  His  message  to  Israel. 
The  Divine  messages  of  earlier  days  had  now 
gained  a  new  significance.  The  loving-kind- 
ness of  God  had  come  to  mean  the  revelation 
of  that  Divine  grace  in  which  God  in  the 
Person  of  His  Son  was  to  be  "  wounded  for 
our  transgressions  and  bruised  for  our  iniqui- 
ties." There  is  open  to  the  prophet  the  vision 
of   the   new  kingdom   of    God,  in  which,  not 


HOW  TO  GET  RIGHT  WITH  GOD    lOY 

only,  righteousness  shall  dwell,  but    in  which 
the  bond  shall  be  the  gratitude  of  loving  hearts 
whose  sins  have  been  forgiven  and  whose  life 
has   been  restored,  when  it  had  seemed  there 
could    be    no  pardon  and  there  was  no  hope. 
His  summons,  therefore,  to  the  people  is  not 
only  to  open  their  hearts  in  loving  gratitude  to 
God    for  all  His  goodness,  thus  dealing  justly 
with  Him,  but  to  go  deeper  than  that,  and  to 
pour  out  their  truest  affection  in  love  for  One 
who    forgiving   their  sins,  could  so  take  them 
away  and  blot  them  out  that  they  never  again 
would    be  known,  casting  them,  as  He  says, 
into   the   depths   of    the    sea.     His   summons, 
therefore,  is  that  his  countrymen  shall  so  turn 
to  God.     They  are  to  love  one  another,  they 
are  to  build  up  a  God-fearing  community  ;  but 
before  that  they  are  to  be  sure  that  they  have 
established  this  love  of  God  as  a  possession  in 
their  own  hearts,  that  they  feel  their  own  sins, 
and  love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us.    Doing 
this,  they  will  be  sure  to  love  one  another. 

Then,  finally,  "  Walk  humbly  with  thy  God." 
Here  we  have  a  word  which  occurs  nowhere 
else  in  the  Bible.  Translators  have  struggled 
with  it.  The  earliest  of  them,  the  Greek  trans- 
lators of  the  Septuagint,  render  it  '*  Prepare 
yourselves  to  walk  with  God."  It  seems  to 
point,  in  the  original,  to  that  devotion  of  one's  self 


108         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

to  the  purpose  of  knowing  God  which  leads 
one  to  put  everything  else  aside,  to  examine 
his  own  heart  and  life,  to  humble  himself  into  a 
sense  of  his  own  ill  desert,  which  shall,  as  it 
were,  empty  his  heart  of  all  else,  that  God  may 
'  come  and  dwell  in  it.  It  points  to  a  private 
and  personal  discipline,  and  recalls  the  many 
other  instances  in  the  Bible  where  a  man  is 
spoken  of  as  "  dwelling  in  the  secret  place  of 
the  Most  High,"  or  entering  into  secret  inter- 
course with  his  Maker. 

This   is  what  the  prophet  leads  up  to,     A 
walking  with  God,  which  is  an  intimate  and 
personal  matter  for  which  a  man  is  to  prepare 
himself,  and  which  he  is  to  make  first  in  his 
purpose.     It    reminds    us    of    that   phrase   of 
Cromwell :     "A  man  has  so  much  religion  as 
f    he  hath  between  God  and  himself  alone,  and  no 
*    more."     It  is  an  exhortation  to  make  sure  of, 
and  then  to  practice,  the  presence  of  God.     It 
is    an    old    form    of    stating    what   we    term 
spirituality,  that  is,   the  reflection  in  a  man's 
spirit  of  this  intimacy  which  he  has  been  per- 
mitted    to    establish    with    God.      It    is    the 
actuality  of  the  Divine  Presence  which  is  to  be 
'^   realized  only  by  those  who   know  its  meaning 
[  and  set  themselves  with  all  their  heart  and  soul 
to  secure  it.     It  is  the  very  heart  and  fountain 
of  all  true  religion,  the  only  source  of  the  life  and 


HOW  TO  GET  EIGHT  WITH  GOD    109 

power,  in  the  strength  of  which  the  work  of  Hfe 
can  be  done,  and  true  service  to  God  can  be 
rendered.  To  attempt  to  Hve  without  it  is  the 
reverse  of  the  nature  in  which  as  children  of 
God  we  are  made  It  is  the  interpretation  of 
our  Lord's  prayer  in  which  we  are  taught  first 
to  say  '*  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven  "  with 
some  true  sense  of  its  meaning,  before  we  are 
permitted  to  pray  with  expectancy  "  Thy  king- 
dom come  "  ;  offering  ourselves  to  do  what  we 
can  to  bring  in  that  kingdom.  It  is  the  early 
form  of  our  Lord's  saying  that  we  are  to  love  f\ 
God  with  all  our  heart,  and  our  soul,  and  mind, 
before  we  can  love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves. 
Here,  then,  is  the  wonderful  message  of  the 
old  prophet.  We  have  never  gone  beyond  it. 
We  never  shall.  It  is  the  most  modern  of  re- 
ligious requirements,  as  it  is  the  most  ancient, 
and  the  most  unchanging.  If  you  and  I  would 
know  God  and  be  His  servants,  if  we  would 
know  life  and  win  peace,  if  we  would  do  our 
part  in  the  world  about  us  and  so  live  as  to 
have  some  hope  of  heaven,  here  is  the  method 
of  it,  and  the  whole  of  it :  *'  To  do  justly,  and 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  in  secret  with  thy 
God  I '' 


IX 

THE  RADIANT  LIFE 
«  They  looked  unto  Him  and  were  radiant." — Psalm  34  :  5. 

WHAT  a  splendid  word  the  Revised 
Version  of  the  Bible  gives  us  here 
in  the  change  from  *'  lightened "  to 
"  radiant."  The  text  that  before  was  of  doubt- 
ful significance,  and  could  be  passed  without 
challenging  attention,  suddenly  arrests  us.  To 
be  radiant  means  to  shine  by  inner  light.  It 
is  the  quality  of  the  sun,  and  not  of  the  moon. 
It  marks  access  to  inexhaustible  reservoirs, 
perhaps,  like  radium,  to  be  joined  to  some 
vast  storehouse  of  power  in  nature  and  in 
God. 

Look  at  the  face  of  a  little  child  radiant 
with  pleasure,  with  interest,  with  imagination, 
or  what  you  will.  It  suggests  fullness  of  life 
in  its  freshness.  We  remember  Wordsworth's 
line  : 

*'  Trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 
From  God  who  is  our  home." 

Look  at  the  face  of  a  youth  radiant  with  love, 
hope,  joy.     Life  has   come  in  larger  fullness. 

no 


THE  RADIANT  LIFE  111 

New  fountains  have  been  opened,  new  possi- 
bilities have  come  to  be  realized,  and  larger 
ones  are  at  hand.  Look  at  the  face  of  the 
strong  man  radiant  with  the  sense  of  triumph, 
of  work  accomplished,  of  an  end  attained, — 
eloquent  of  new  and  still  deeper  satisfaction. 
Look  at  the  face  of  the  dying  saint,  radiant  in 
a  yet  more  beautiful  sense  with  the  vision  of 
eternity  and  the  unrevealed  splendours  of  the 
life  which  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

Everywhere  in  them  all  we  see  fullness  of 
life,  powers  from  God  all  called  forth,  all  exer- 
cised,—interest,  enthusiasm,  delight,  strength, 
attainment,  knowledge,  vision.  We  believe  in 
the  infinitude  of  life.  We  are  prepared  to  ac- 
cept the  word  of  revelation  that  man  is  a  son 
of  God,  that  "  eternity  "  is  '*  hid  in  his  heart,'* 
because  we  see  this  radiance  in  his  face.  One 
recalls  Gorreggio's  great  painting  of  the  Nativ- 
ity, "  La  Notte,"  in  which  the  radiance  from 
the  countenance  of  the  infant  Jesus  illumines 
every  face  of  the  onlookers,  and  repels  the 
darkness  of  the  stable  in  which  all  are 
gathered.  It  is  a  suggestion  of  the  fullness 
of  the  life  that  is  in  man  as  a  child  of  God. 

This  radiance  is  eloquent  also  of  the  satis- 
faction of  the  soul.  Man  was  made  for  this, 
and  here  it  is  at  last.  No  matter  what  has 
been    the    particular    experience,    or    at   what 


112         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

stage  in  life  it  has  come,  when  it  is  there  it 
indicates  attainment.  The  ideal  has  been  real- 
ized ;  the  effort  has  been  crowned  ;  the  fullness 
of  life  has  brought  satisfaction  ;  and  now  the 
whole  being  seems  to  shine  with  the  sense  of 
attainment  which  fills  the  soul. 

But,  also,  it  is  the  challenge  of  the  unattained  ; 
the  radiance  is  luminous  as  indicating  some- 
thing yet  to  come.  There  is  more  to  do,  more 
to  enjoy,  more  to  achieve,  and  the  radiance 
that  shines  in  the  eyes  and  in  the  face  marks 
the  eagerness  of  a  soul  which  has  visions  of 
this.  The  present  is  not  so  real  as  is  the 
future,  and  the  future  holds  still  more  than  the 
present  has  attained.  In  short,  here  is  the 
whole  man,  his  possibilities  no  less  than  his 
attainments.  His  past,  his  present,  his  future, 
gathered  together  summoning  him  to  be  ready 
for  all  that  is  before  him. 

In  some  way,  the  old  Psalmist  had  met  such 
men.  He  had  looked  into  such  faces.  He 
knew  something  of  their  experience,  and  so  he 
speaks  with  full  confidence.  Anybody  could 
see  what  he  sees.  It  is  visible  in  the  lives 
which  are  open  to  all.  These  men  of  whom 
he  speaks  are  radiant,  and  the  light  is  genuine. 
It  will  not  fade.  They  were  radiant  as  he 
looked  at  them,  and  his  comment  is  "Their 
faces    shall    never    be  confounded."     The  ex- 


THE  RADIANT  LIFE  113 

perience  is  so  real  and  so  deep,  the  change, 
in  fact,  is  so  abiding  and  so  satisfying,  that  no 
matter  what  happens  they  can  never  be  put  to 
shame.  The  Bible  has  the  story  of  many  such 
men,  from  Enoch  who  '*  walked  with  God  and 
was  not,  for  God  took  him,"  till  we  come  to  the 
very  end  of  the  New  Testament  and  behold  the 
beloved  disciple  with  radiant  eyes  gazing  upon 
the  glories  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  city  come 
down  from  God  out  of  heaven.  Above  all,  the 
picture  of  Him  in  whom  men  beheld  "  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face 
of  Jesus  Christ." 

The  testimony  concerning  them  all  is  the 
same.  "  They  looked  unto  Him,  and  were 
radiant."  It  is  the  effect  of  their  vision  of  God, 
His  light,  His  love.  His  joy.  His  life  found  en- 
trance to  their  souls  and  filled  them,  and  now 
shines  forth. 

We  ask  :    "  How  did  they  do  this,  that  such 
result  was   obtained?"     The  answer  is,    they 
turned  away  from   everything   that   hindered.  1 1 
Open  their  story  anywhere.     It  is  always  the     ^ 
same.     Abraham  left  his  home  and  his  country 
and  travelled  far  as  a  stranger,  not  knowing 
whither   he   went,   because   he  was  willing  to 
give  up  everything,  that  he  might  obey  God^ , 
and   find   Him.     Joseph,  the  captive,  a   slave   t 
and   a   stranger,    gives    up   the    position   and 


114         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

turns  from  the  temptations  which  would  have 
*'  brought  him  the  pleasures  and  the  triumphs 
which  beguile  other  men,  in  order  that  he 
might  be  faithful  to  God.  Moses,  forsaking 
the  pleasures  of  Egypt,  retiring  alone  on  the 
mountain,  offering  his  life  in  sacrifice  for  his 
people  that  God  may  be  honoured,  comes 
again  to  them  with  the  shining  face,  which  is 

f  ever  after  remembered  as  needing  a  veil  that 
men  might  look  upon  him  without  distress. 
Daniel,  in  his  chamber  with  his  windows 
opened  towards  Jerusalem,  and  face  upturned 
to  his  protecting  God,  shines  through  the 
centuries  with  a  radiance  which  has  lost  noth- 
ing of  its  glorious  strength.  Paul,  in  his  blind- 
ness, turned  from  the  life  which  was  challeng- 
ing his  young  strength  that  he  might  give  him- 
self to  the  service  of  the  unseen  Christ  who 
spoke  to  him  on  the  way.  John,  the  son  of 
thunder,  with  softened  countenance  and  gentle 
eyes,  filled  with  the  love  of  his  Master,  now  the 
Beloved  Disciple,  first  to  realize  in  its  fullness, 
the  satisfying  blessedness  of  that  intimacy  with 
Christ  which  was  to  be  the  comfort  and  the 
peace  of  countless  souls  in  coming  ages. 

One  and  all,  they  are  the  types  of  men  who, 
turning  away  from  everything  that  hinders,  at- 

j  tained   the   sufficiency,    the  strength,    and  the 
peace  which  lie  in  finding  God  and  being  found 


THE  KADIANT  LIFE  115 

in  Him,  and  their  faces  shone  with  a  new  light. 
Henceforth  there  was  for  them  no  anxiety  and 
no  regret.  They  had  left  all  so  completely  that 
there  was  no  thought  of  turning  again  to  what 
lay  behind  them,  and  they  already  had  found 
such  supreme  contentment  in  what  God  had 
brought  into  their  hearts  that  they  had  no  con- 
cern for  the  future.  Come  what  will,  it  can  only  | 
bring  God  to  them  in  greater  fullness.  They  \/ 
had  made  their  choice,  and  it  needed  not  to  be 
reconsidered. 

Furthermore,  these  men  really  sought  God.  | 
It  was  not  knowledge,  or  success,  or  pleasure,  .  [ 
or  even  happiness  that  had  led  them  to  their 
choice.  Moses  perhaps  is  the  best  type  as  he 
goes  alone  up  Mount  Sinai.  Men  are  con- 
tinually trying  to  locate  Sinai.  They  have 
sought  it  in  the  Arabian  Peninsula  and  on  the 
borders  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  They  have  made 
pilgrimages  and  have  built  monasteries  and 
even  given  up  everything  that  they  might  live 
permanently  on  the  lofty  summit.  In  fact,  it 
never  will  be  known.  God  has  kept  it  from 
men's  knowledge  lest  they  should  set  up  an  al- 
tar there  and  turn  their  thoughts  to  an  experi- 
ence in  the  far  ancient  past,  and  lose  sight  of 
the  fact  that  every  man  has  his  own  Sinai. 
The  world  presses  hard,  with  business  and 
pleasure  and  strife  for  success,  and  one  by  one, 


116         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

when  the  hour  comes,  we  are  all  summoned  to 
choose  between  these  things  and  God.     With 
;  us,  as  with  Moses,  the  treasures  of  Egypt  are  to 
'i'  be  left  behind.     We  are  not  only  to  forsake 
them,    but    deliberately  and  carefully  to  seek 
another  treasure  more  real,  more  satisfying,  but 
less  easily  apprehended.     God  is  to  be  sought 
in  self-denial  and  in  self-discipline,  in  sacrificial 
service,  and  in  the  set  purpose  of  attainment, 
cost  what  it  may.     As  our  Lord  put  it,  we  are 
to  forsake  all  and  follow  Him  if  we  are  to  be 
disciples  indeed.     Only  when  that  search  is  un- 
dertaken with  sincerity,  and  when  the  heart  has 
gathered  up  all  its  strength  with  Divine  help  to 
devote  itself  to  God,  does  the  radiance  appear 
;  in  the  face,  which  is  the  witness  at  once  of  the 
realized  attainment  and  of  the  satisfying  joy. 
When  Moses   came  down  from  the  mountain 
and    his    face    shone,  men  knew  that  he  had 
looked  upon  God.     He  had  found  Him  whom 
his  soul  sought,  and  in  that  finding  had  come 
the  vision  which  filled  his  heart  with  a  light 
which  henceforth  would  never  fail  in  his  eyes. 
These  men  of  whom  the  Psalmist  speaks  as 
looking  upon  God  and  being  radiant,  were  men 
,  who  had  asked  God  for  help.     They   sought 
the  vision  which  did  so  much  for  them.     They 
^''.  were  men  of  prayer.     How  frequently  in   the 
I '  story  of  Jesus  do  we  read  that  He  turned  aside 


THE  RADIANT  LIFE  117 

in  the  desert  or  on  the  mountain  that  He  might 
pray.  That  prayer  was  not  the  ordinary  sup- 
pHcation  of  men  who  are  merely  seeking  rehef 
from  present  burden  or  the  gratification  of  some 
pressing  desire.  It  was  not  the  confession  in 
which  the  burdened  soul  pours  itself  out  in 
prayer  for  forgiveness,  nor  the  spiritless  peti- 
tion of  the  heart  that  is  troubled  with  the  cares 
of  life  or  dulled  with  the  satiety  of  its  pleasures. 
It  was  the  eager  and  buoyant  up- springing  of 
the  soul  which  knows  where  to  find  God  and 
turns  to  Him  in  the  assurance  of  His  presence  jj 
and  of  the  vision  of  His  satisfying  love.  That 
vision  reached  its  completeness  on  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration,  and  the  radiance  that  there 
shone  from  His  face,  seemed  to  the  amazed  on- 
lookers to  change  the  very  nature  of  His  body 
and  to  transform  His  common  garments  into 
robes  of  unearthly  texture  and  celestial  beauty. 
This  vision  of  God  that  has  been  attained  by 
those  who  have  made  the  sacrifice,  or  put  forth 
the  supreme  effort,  or  paid  the  unstinted  price, 
the  prophet,  the  apostle,  or  the  martyr,  Daniel 
in  the  den  of  the  lions,  Paul  before  Agrippa,  the 
aged  Polycarp  in  the  arena  lifting  up  his  face 
and  saying  :  **  My  Lord  has  never  denied  me. 
How  can  I  deny  Him  ? "  is  the  true  source  of 
the  light  which  '*  never  was  on  land  or  sea,"  of 
the  radiance  of  countenances  that  are  at  peace 


118        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

with  God  and  of  souls  that  have  attained  to 
fullness  of  life. 

They  gave  themselves  to  God  utterly  and 
this  is  the  testimony.  They  looked  upon 
Stephen  as  they  stoned  him  to  death  and  they 
bear  testimony  that  his  face  was  as  "  the  face  of 
an  angel."  Striving  to  depict  the  Virgin  Mary 
in  the  presence  of  the  Angel  of  the  Annuncia- 
tion, painters  have  concentrated  their  efforts 
upon  the  countenance  which  in  the  glory  of  its 
entire  surrender,  shone  with  the  light  which  has 
made  her  face  the  ideal  and  the  dream  ;  and 
with  all  their  efforts,  they  never  have  been  sat- 
isfied with  the  result. 

It  is  given  to  us  all  to  know  the  nature  of 
that  radiance,  but  not  to  realize  its  fullness. 
That  is  reserved  for  the  day  when  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is,  and  be  like  Him,  the  day  which 
will  bring  the  attainment  of  that  perfection  of 
character  which,  as  the  outcome  of  the  finished 
work  of  Christ,  will  mark  the  completed  pur- 
pose of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 

So  it  was  given  to  the  Psalmist  to  be  stirred 
by  this  light  in  the  faces  of  some  men  whom  he 
knew,  and  to  recognize  it  as  the  supreme  good 
that  comes  to  men  when  they  are  obedient  to 
God  and  surrender  themselves  to  His  love  and 
to  His  service.  It  is  the  declaration  of  the  un- 
changing truth  that  man  is  made  in  the  image 


THE  EADIANT  LIFE  119 

of  God,  that  the  life  that  is  in  us  is  life  from 
God,  and  that  only  as  that  life  is  realized  in 
something  of  its  fullness  by  the  turning  of  the 
soul  to  its  Maker  and  the  opening  of  the  heart 
to  the  inflowing  stream  of  His  love,  do  we  at- 
tain for  ourselves  the  contentment  which  marks 
the  abiding  peace  that  comes  when  our  every  / 
power  has  been  called  to  its  noblest  exercise 
and  we  have  found  our  home  in  God. 


CHRIST  THE  RESTORER 

"  And  He  said  unto  him :   « Verily,   I  say  unto   thee,   To-day 
thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise.' " — Luke  23  :  4j. 

SOME  years  ago  a  New  England  judge, 
the  most  prominent  man  in  his  town,  ap- 
peared before  the  committee  of  the  local 
church  asking  to  be  received  into  membership 
on  confession  of  his  faith.  There  was  no  revi- 
val, and  there  had  been  no  previous  intimation 
of  the  change  in  liis  heart  or  life.  He  said, 
"  You  will  be  surprised.  I  am  not  influenced 
by  anything  that  has  occurred  in  the  church ;  I 
I  have  not  been  converted  by  any  sermon  ;  but  I 
[  cannot  stand  the  influence  of  the  life  of  my 
I  neighbour  Deacon  Blank.  For  thirty  years  I 
have  observed  that  old  man,  and  at  last  I  am 
convinced  that  his  life  is  governed  by  a  higher 
power  than  any  that  I  have  known,  and  I  have 
sought  him  to  learn  how  I  might  have  the  same 
influence  in  my  life  ;  and  I  have  given  myself 
to  his  Lord." 

A   few   weeks  ago  a  high  class   Hindoo,  a 
young  Brahmin,  drifted  into  a  Bowery  mission 

120 


CHEIST  THE  RESTORER  121 

one  Sunday  night.  He  remained  at  the  close 
of  the  meeting  to  talk  with  the  leader.  He  was 
travelling  for  purposes  of  study  in  foreign  lands, 
had  been  for  some  time  in  England  and  had 
come  to  this  country  in  pursuit  of  further  teach- 
ing. He  had  been  untouched  by  anything  he 
had  heard  of  Christianity  in  India,  or  had  seen 
either  in  London  or  in  New  York.  But  what  he 
heard  and  saw  in  that  mission  meeting,  in  the 
testimony  of  the  men  who  told  what  Jesus 
Christ  had  done  for  them,  reached  his  soul. 
And  before  he  left  the  company  of  that  plain 
leader  who  remained  with  him  till  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  he  had  kneeled  by  his  side  and 
given  himself  to  Christ. 

Here  is  the  key  to  what  happened  on  the 
cross.  It  was  the  first  manifestation  of  the 
power  of  the  deathless  Christ,  the  first  instance 
in  the  long  line  of  men  who  have  been  saved  by 
Him,  the  first  witness  to  the  Saviour  who  lives 
to-day.  We  turn  to  that  hour  to  see  exactly 
what  happened. 

Attention  has  generally  been  absorbed  by 
Jesus'  promise  of  immortality  when  He  said 
to  the  thief :  '*  To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me 
in  Paradise."  Many  arguments  have  been 
drawn  from  it  as  to  the  immediate  transfer 
of  the  penitent  soul  at  death  from  the  life  of 
earth  to  the  life  of  heaven,  and  the  nature  of 


122         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

that  Paradise  into  which  the  soul  goes  in  com- 
panionship with  its  Lord.  But  we  can  pass  all 
that  by  for  the  hour.  Precious  as  it  is,  there  is 
something  of  greater  consequence. 

The  story  is  of  a  highway  robber  being  exe- 
cuted for  his  crimes.  He  was  evidently  a  hard- 
ened man,  and  the  hardness  of  his  heart  and  life 
is  indicated  by  the  expressions  of  his  companion 
who,  in  the  fierceness  of  his  agony,  cursed  Jesus, 
as  he  cursed  himself  and  everybody  within 
reach.  But  this  man  in  the  hour  of  his  death 
finds  himself  crowded  up  against  Jesus.  Their 
experiences  for  the  moment,  in  the  crucifixion, 
are  identical.  He  turns  his  face  towards  Him  and 
in  some  sudden  and  unexplained  way  he  is  won 
by  Him.  It  is  immaterial  just  how.  Some- 
times we  can  tell  how  confidence  and  love  are 
born.  Often,  we  cannot.  We  use  a  conve- 
nient word  and  say  there  is  an  instinctive  some- 
thing in  us  that  now  and  again  moves  us  to 
another.  It  is  sufficient  to  know  that  something 
in  the  soul  of  that  dying  robber  answers  the 
look  in  the  face  of  the  suffering  Christ.  We 
have  no  description  of  the  Saviour's  appearance, 
and  the  efforts  of  artists  through  all  the  centuries 
to  depict  Him  for  us  have  resulted  only  in  rep- 
resentations of  tragic  pain  and  a  countenance 
full  of  repellent  agony.  There  is  no  record  of 
words  that  were  spoken. 


CHRIST  THE  RESTORER  123 

It  must  remain  sufficient  for  us  that  in 
that  supreme  hour  the  long  dead  inner  self 
of  the  thief  awoke.  His  soul  was  discovered 
by  another;  and  that  discovery  of  his  soul 
carried  into  his  heart  the  conviction  that 
there  was  One  who  believed  in  its  existence.  It 
suddenly  was  shown  to  him  that  that  other,  at 
least,  believed  that  goodness  was  still  alive  in 
him.  In  this  way,  all  unexpectedly  to  himself, 
his  soul  was  suddenly  brought  to  his  own 
knowledge.  It  was  made  once  more  to  live  for 
him  because  it  lived  to  another  better  than  him- 
self. There  had  suddenly  come  into  hislife  One 
filled  with  a  divine  love.  That  love  had  em- 
braced him  just  as  he  was ;  and  in  a  moment 
all  had  changed.  Up  to  that  moment  he  had 
been  living  what  he  had  come  to  believe  was 
the  only  life  possible  for  him.  He  once  had 
known  a  better  life.  Since  then  he  had  often 
dreamed  of  it,  but  it  had  altogether  passed  away  ; 
and  so  completely  had  it  gone  that  to  him  it 
was  dead.  He  had  ceased  to  believe  in  the  very 
possibility  of  its  existence.  Life  had  become  to 
him  what  life  is  to  any  man  given  over  to  the 
pursuit  of  reckless  evil, — little  more  than  a  liv- 
ing death.  Its  joys  were  forced.  Its  possibili- 
ties were  only  of  a  more  hopeless  bondage  and 
a  deeper  discontent.  What  he  knew  of  himself, 
he  knew  that  others  must  know,  or  coming  to 


124         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

know,  would  regard  as  he  regarded  it.  He  saw 
no  door  of  hope  within  the  range  of  his  own  ex- 
perience, or  as  possible  to  him  through  what 
might  come  from  without.  He  was  now  meet- 
ing the  penalty  of  transgression  which  he  had 
long  anticipated, — a  penalty  which  he  knew  to 
be  just,  as  he  had  known  that  it  was  inevitable. 
The  only  end  of  a  career  that  had  not  halted  at 
any  wickedness  was  a  punitive  death. 

In  a  moment  his  evil  life  had  changed  in  its 
relations.  It  had  become  what  Maeterlinck 
calls  "  a  goodness  that  had  got  off  the  track.'' 
He  did  not  know  it  so.  He  never  had  for  a 
moment  so  regarded  it,  nor  had  that  thought  been 
presented  to  him.  But  here  is  One  who  does 
so  regard  it.  One  so  different  from  himself,  so 
different  from  all  other  men  he  had  ever  known, 
that  the  sudden  revelation  of  His  view  of  him, — 
the  thief, — strikes  him  with  compelling  force. 
It  seems  to  say  :  "  Stop,  think  I  If  this  is  so, 
and  my  life  is  goodness  that  has  got  off  the 
track,  perhaps  it  can  be  put  back."  Here  is 
One  who  still  believes  in  him,  or  the  suggestion 
would  not  have  sprung  into  his  heart.  He  is  a 
man  who  has  lost  his  way.  It  was  his  own 
doing, — his  reckless  disregard  of  the  right  way, 
his  headlong  rushing  into  evil.  He  has  known 
that  and  he  has  faced  the  consequences.  He 
pleads  no  excuse,  and  he  knows  no  palliation. 


CHRIST  THE  RESTORER  125 

He  is  the  engineer  who  has  run  his  train  past 
the  danger  signals  and  has  smashed  it  into  the 
station  house  and  killed  innocent  people.  He 
has  sprung  from  the  engine,  and  fled  with  the 
purpose  never  again  to  take  a  throttle  in  his 
hands.  He  has  ruined  himself  as  completely  as 
he  has  destroyed  others.  He  has  cherished  no 
lingering  thought  that  the  past  could  be  undone 
or  that  there  was  any  hope  for  him  of  being 
other  than  he  now  is.  His  life  is  as  evil  as  his 
heart  has  become  hard,  and  he  is  steadying  him- 
self to  face  the  onrushing  death  with  closed 
teeth  and  with  tongue  that  shall  not  utter  a 
cry. 

But  here  is  a  sudden  and  overcoming  thought. 
Can  it  be  possible  that  his  perversity  is  a  power 
of  devotion  somehow  inverted,  that  his  bitterness 
and  his  hate  are  a  sweet  affection  soured  by  misdi- 
rection ?  In  ignorance  of  himself  and  of  God,  he 
has  been  driving  himself  to  destruction  because 
he  did  not  know  that  even  for  him  there  was 
still  a  heaven  and  One  to  help  him  to  attain  it. 
Now  he  awakens.  He  is  not  wholly  lost. 
There  is  One  who  believes  in  him.  It  may  be, 
therefore,  that  life  for  him  is  not  forever  turned 
to  death.  It  has  not  all  been  wasted  and  des- 
troyed. This  Saviour  who  has  come  to  him, 
though  at  such  a  late  hour  and  in  such  strange 
conditions,   but  who  sees  in  him  even  in   the 


126        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

agony  of  death,  the  possibilities  of  life,  can  save 
him  for  that  life.  Because  Jesus  believes  in  him 
he  begins  to  believe  in  himself.  He  believes  in 
Christ.  Paradise  is  his  because  his  soul  has 
been  awakened,  in  fact  born  anew.  He  has  re- 
ceived life  as  a  gift  from  One  in  whom  the 
Divine  Life  cannot  be  extinguished  for  Himself 
or  for  His  fellow  sufferers.  He  was  dying,  and 
from  the  physical  death  there  was  no  escape  ; 
but  he  was  dying  forever  blessed,  because  in 
that  supreme  moment  he  was  made  aware  of 
the  Divine  Love  and  the  Divine  Saviour  able  to 
save  him  from  himself,  because  Jesus  so  believed 
in  him  that  even  in  that  hour  of  the  consumma- 
tion of  his  guilty  life,  Jesus  saw  in  him  a  soul 
made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  summoned  that 
soul  by  the  power  of  a  love  that  could  both 
awaken  and  forgive,  into  the  life  for  which  it 
was  made  and  out  of  which  it  seemed  to  have 
gone  so  hopelessly  astray. 

Men  everywhere  are  discussing  Christianity. 
The  whole  problem  centres  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Men  argue  about  Revelation,  about  the  Bible, 
about  the  fall  of  man,  about  miracles  and  the 
like.  All  is  unconvincing.  Then  men  turn  to 
Him.  When  we  come  to  know  Him  as  Paul 
knew  Him  when  he  cried,  "Who  art  Thou, 
Lord  ? "  and  heard  the  answer,  "  I  am  Jesus 
whom    thou  persecutest,"  in  prompt  self-sur- 


CHRIST  THE  RESTORER  127 

render  we  are  moved  to  say,  What  wilt  Thou 
have  me  to  do  ? 

Then  we  know  Jesus  Christ  for  Himself.  It 
is  His  Presence,— the  Light  of  God  that  shone 
in  His  face, — that  awakens  us  and  makes  for 
us  a  new  life  possible.  We  can  be  born  again. 
We  can  be  set  back  on  the  track.  The  right 
direction  can  yet  be  given  to  our  powers.  Life 
with  all  that  it  means  and  with  all  that  we  tried 
to  forget  in  it  once  more  opens  before  us.  We 
give  ourselves  to  Him  and  then  everything  falls 
into  line.  The  Resurrection,  the  miracles,  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation  all  are  as  they  should 
be.  They  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  God 
has  indeed  redeemed  the  world  unto  Himself, 
and  the  glad  heart  of  the  penitent  sinner  cries 
out,  "  Because  He  lives,  I  shall  live  also." 

It  is  this  awakening  of  the  dead  self,  the  dis- 
covery of  one  who  believes  that  goodness  is  still 
possible  in  us,  that  awakens  in  our  hearts  the 
conviction  that  that  goodness  is  still  within  our 
reach.  No  matter  who  I  am,  or  how  low  I 
have  sunk,  or  how  weak  I  have  proved  my- 
self before  temptation,  or  how  completely 
others  have  cast  me  out,  Jesus  Christ  believes  in 
me.  He  has  come  to  seek  and  to  save  me. 
He  has  given  Himself  for  me  as  truly  and  as 
completely  as  if  I  were  the  only  sinner  in  all 
God's  universe,  for  He  came  to  seek  and  to 


i 


128        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

save  the  lost,  no  matter  how  many  or  how  few, 
and  as  a  true  seeker  of  the  lost,  He  is  in  search 
of  the  one  that  is  lost,  and  the  joy  among  the 
angels  of  God  over  the  finding  is  as  true  over 
the  one  as  over  the  million. 

With  the  finding  of  the  lost  and  the  revela- 
tion of  the  redeeming  love,  comes  the  gift  of 
the  new  power.  The  life  that  He  bestows  is  a 
genuine  life.  It  continues.  It  unfolds  from 
within.  It  reproduces  itself.  It  bears  a  fitting 
fruit.  Joy  and  peace  and  self-control  and 
strength  come  with  it.  One  who  but  now  was 
dead  is  alive  again.  The  fear  of  death  vanishes. 
He  has  confidence  in  the  life  beyond  because 
he  has  the  assurance  of  the  life  that  now  is. 
Paradise  is  a  reality  because  it  has  already  be- 
gun in  the  soul,  and  all  because  the  revelation 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  revelation  of  One 
who  believes  in  us  long  after  we  have  ceased  to 
believe  in  ourselves. 

Here  then  is  the  commission  for  every  dis- 
ciple of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  to  get  goodness 
back  on  the  track,  to  help  men  believe  in  what 
is  still  in  themselves.  They  have  tried  to  des- 
troy it.  It  is  buried  under  the  consciousness 
of  what  seems  a  burned  out  life ;  though  it  is 
deep  beneath  the  ashes  it  is  a  live  coal  still. 
They  do  not  know  it.  They  do  not  believe  in 
its  possibility,  only  because  they  do  not  know 


CHRIST  THE  RESTORER  12» 

Jesus  Christ.  The  business  of  the  follower  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  Jesus  Christ  to  them,  to 
show  that  He  believes  in  them  by  believing  in 
them  first  ourselves.  As  we  are  able  to  do  this, 
Christ  speaks  through  His  disciples  to  those 
who  are  in  need  of  Him,  and  the  Unseen  Christ 
reveals  Himself  in  the  faith  and  the  love  of  His 
disciples. 

One  day  there  stood  in  the  doorway  of  a 
Fifth  Avenue  house,  a  poor  outcast  girl.  The 
mistress  of  that  house  had  come  across  her  in 
some  philanthropic  work,  had  taken  her  to  her 
own  home,  while  she  sought  in  vain  to  find  her 
a  permanent  place  in  order  to  make  a  better  life 
possible  for  her.  When  finally  she  failed,  with 
tears  in  her  eyes,  she  had  to  tell  the  poor  girl 
that  she  could  find  no  place  that  was  open  to 
her  ;  and  with  bitter  thoughts  in  her  heart,  the 
poor  wanderer  had  turned  again  into  the  street. 
Now  she  returned  and  when  once  more  she 
stood  in  the  presence  of  her  would-be  benefac- 
tress, she  said,  as  explaining  her  return,  "I 
could  not  stand  your  crying."  She  had  not  be- 
lieved in  the  reality  of  her  desire  to  help.  She 
had  been  herself  so  long  an  outcast,  and  had  so 
entirely  given  up  all  hope,  that  she  could  not 
believe  that  any  one  believed  in  her.  But  the 
manifest  strength  of  the  love  that  had  sought 
to  save  her,  speaking  through  the  tears  that 


i\ 


130         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

could  not  be  repressed,  had  touched  her 
heart,  and  now  she  came  back  with  a  new 
purpose,  because  it  had  aroused  within  her  a 
new  hope. 

"  Behold  how  He  loved  him ! "  was  the  un- 
willing confession  of  the  onlookers  as  Jesus 
stood  by  the  grave  of  Lazarus  ;  and  it  was  that 
conviction  breaking  into  men's  hearts  on  the 
left  and  on  the  right  during  the  three  brief  years 
of  the  Saviour's  ministry  which  drew  about  Him 
the  disciples  through  whom  the  coming  of  His 
kingdom  in  the  hearts  of  men  was  to  be  made 
possible. 

The  other  day  a  rich  man  who  had  long 
neglected  his  church  and  was  turning  away 
to  a  life  of  indifferent  carelessness  spoke  to  a 
minister  who  chanced  to  sit  by  his  side ;  after 
talking  with  him  quietly  about  his  life  and  the 
needs  of  his  soul,  he  suddenly  said  :  **  Why  has 
no  one  ever  come  to  me  as  you  do,  all  these 
years?"  It  was  the  sudden  discovery  that 
there  was  one,  though  a  comparative  stranger, 
who  still  believed  in  the  possibilities  hidden  in 
his  heart,  the  possibilities  of  deep  and  true 
spiritual  feeling,  the  possibilities  of  a  kindled 
love  for  his  Saviour,  and  of  the  re-awakening 
of  the  soul  that  had  allowed  itself  to  be  buried 
under  the  cares  and  the  pleasures  of  a  crowded 
life :  it  was  this  that  reached  and  touched  that 


CHRIST  THE  EESTORER  131 

heart  and   called   it  back  to  the  life  which  it 
seemed  rapidly  to  be  losing  forever. 

This,  then,  is  the  message  of  that  story  of 
the  thief,  the  witness  to  the  reality  of  the  power 
that  lies  in  the  love  of  one  soul  for  another, 
as  it  bears  testimony  to  God  who  is  Himself 
love,  and  who  is  not  willing  that  any  should 
perish.  The  love  that  believes  in  us  is  the  very 
love  of  God  Himself  using  a  human  love  in  all 
its  pitiful  helplessness  to  bring  us  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  divine  love  which  even  the  hardest 
heart  cannot  daunt,  and  by  which  even  the 
chief  of  sinners  can  be  saved. 


XI 

DEFEATING  GOD 

"  And  He  did  not  many  mighty  works  there  because  of  their  un- 
belief."—il/a//.  13  :  s8. 

THEIR  unbelief  must  have  seemed  a 
very  small  matter  to  the  men  of  Naza- 
reth. If  they  gave  any  thought  at  all 
to  their  manner  of  receiving  Jesus,  they  must 
have  said,  '*We  are  treating  Him  a  good  deal 
better  than  when  He  was  here  before." 

At  His  previous  visit  they  had  risen  in  great 
anger  and  rushed  Him  out  of  the  city  to  kill 
Him  by  throwing  Him  over  the  cliffo  Now 
they  have  no  such  feelings.  They  do  not 
oppose  Him,  or  even  argue  against  Him.  In- 
deed, they  are  rather  indifferent  than  otherwise. 
If  they  think  at  all,  they  may  find  it  rather 
difBcult  to  account  for  their  change  of  attitude, 
— difficult  to  explain  either  why  they  were  so 
stirred  up  before  or  why  they  are  so  little  con- 
cerned now.  As  it  is,  they  are  disposed  just 
to  let  Him  alone. 

They  talk  about  Him,  they  ask  perhaps  who 
He  really  is,  what  He  has  done,  and  what  He 

132 


DEFEATING  GOD  133 

is  trying  to  do  ;  but  they  do  not  care  enough 
even  about  their  own  talk  to  pursue  the  sub- 
ject very  far,  or  to  trouble  themselves  to  get 
answers  to  their  questions.  They  find  it  easier 
simply  to  pay  no  attention  at^  all.  They  have 
other  concerns  that  are  more  interesting,  if 
really  not  more  important.  One  has  his  farm, 
another  his  merchandise,  and  a  third  has 
married  a  wife.  They  are  very  much  like  the 
multitude  of  men  to-day. 

But  this  was  Nazareth,  Jesus'  early  home. 
At  the  height  of  the  Galilean's  ministry,  when 
men  were  saying  that  all  the  world  had  gone 
after  Him,  for  some  unexplained  reason  Jesus 
leaves  the  neighbourhood  of  Capernaum  and 
the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Tiberius,  where  He 
found  so  many  willing  hearers,  and  crosses 
the  country  to  work  among  His  own  people. 
"  Even  His  brethren  believed  not  Him,"  is  the 
brief  sentence  of  the  Evangelist  in  another 
connection.  Perhaps  it  was  that  He  could  not 
bear  to  think  of  their  persistent  separation  from 
Him  that  led  Him  in  the  day  of  His  greatest 
success  to  turn  aside  and  go  back  to  them. 
He  hoped  that  at  last  they  would  open  their 
hearts,  and  that  He  might  have  the  joy  of 
knowing  that  they  and  the  neighbours  among 
whom  He  had  grown  up,  the  community  which 
we  can  imagine  He  most  loved,  would  change 


134         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

their  attitude,  and  give  Him  the  support  He 
so  much  sought,  or  perhaps,  more  exactly, 
would  not  be  left  out  from  the  blessing  which 
it  was  His  privilege  to  bring  to  them,  as  to  the 
world.  In  any  case.  He  had  come  to  Nazareth 
for  the  last  time.  There  may  have  been  some 
risk  about  it.  Perhaps  He  thought  that  they 
might  even  again  attempt  to  kill  Him.  But 
whatever  the  thought  was,  the  fact  is  that  He 
had  turned  aside  from  people  who  were  greet- 
ing Him  with  demonstrative  approval,  and 
from  a  section  of  the  country  where  the  wave 
of  His  popularity  was  sweeping  everything  be- 
fore it  and  where  His  career  and  His  message 
were  alike  approved,  to  go  once  more  to  Naza- 
reth. The  shadow  of  the  cross  was  already 
reaching  out  towards  Him.  It  was  but  a  little 
more  than  a  year  before  the  end.  His  feeling 
of  the  imminence  of  that  end  must  have  been 
intensifying.  His  anxiety  over  His  mission 
and  for  those  whom  He  loved  must  have  been 
rapidly  deepening.  What  He  had  to  do  must 
be  done  quickly.  He  may  already  have 
realized  that  it  was  His  last  opportunity  of  ap- 
pealing to  the  people  of  His  early  home.  In 
any  case,  it  was  their  last  chance. 

And  now  He  could  do  nothing.  The  brief 
record  is,  **  He  did  not  many  mighty  works 
there  because  of  their  unbelief."     As  we  trans- 


DEFEATING  GOD  135 

late  it  into  the  thought   of  to-day,   we   read,  J\ 
**  Those  men  of  Nazareth  defeated  God."  ^ 

The  record  in  its  simplicity  is  deeply  signifi- 
cant. Jesus  could  do  something  for  them.  He 
taught  them  in  their  synagogue,  in  so  much  that 
they  were  astonished.  God  can  always  do 
something,  whether  men  bear  or  forbear.  He 
causes  the  sun  to  shine  on  the  just  and  on  the 
unjust,  and  the  rain  to  fall  on  the  evil  and  on  the  ^ , 
good.  God's  blessings  are  new  every  morn- 
ing to  all  of  us,  whether  we  believe  or  not. 
God  is  true  to  Himself  in  that  He  is  very  loving 
and  very  pitiful ;  but  there  is  a  limit  even  to 
what  God  can  do. 

In  this  particular  instance  the  record  stands 
that  Jesus  could  do  "  not  many  mighty  works." 
The  significance  of  the  statement  appears  when  * 
we  ask,  ''What  were  His  mighty  works?" 
For  the  answer  is,  all  that  He  did  to  make  God 
real  to  men.  He  had  come  for  that  purpose. 
Men  have  always  had  a  traditional  worship. 
These  Jews  perhaps  always  had  said  their 
prayers.  Many  of  them  were  good  fathers  and 
mothers,  and  doubtless  reasonably  honest  men 
and  women.  The  ordinary  life  went  on  quietly 
and  regularly  among  them.  They  were  easily 
content  with  a  traditional  religion,  and  with  so 
much  quietness  of  conscience  as  comes  with  re- 
ligious habits  that  are  substantially  maintained. 


136         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

But  God  was  not  real  to  them.  They  had 
no  vivid  apprehension  of  His  presence  or  of 
His  love,  or  of  the  kind  of  service  which  God 
seeks  from  us  all.  Their  affections  were  like 
the  affections  of  most  men  everywhere — set  on 
the  things  which  are  nearest  them, — the  daily 
concerns  of  the  common  life.  They  had  no  true 
sense  of  God's  love,  of  His  righteousness,  or  of 
His  justice,  no  fear  of  God  as  the  final  Judge, 
no  clear  recognition  of  what  God  needed  to  do 
for  them  as  men  whose  hearts  are  weak  before 
temptation  and  soiled  and  hardened  with  many 
a  sin. 

Jesus  had  come  to  change  all  this.  He  sought 
to  do  it  by  what  He  said  about  God,  by  what 
He  did  in  God's  name,  by  what  He  showed 
Himself  to  be  as  He  presented  Himself  in  the 
beauty  and  the  purity  and  the  charm  of  His 
own  life  and  character,  winning  men  to  a  higher 
x  purpose  and  revealing  to  them  the  blessings  of  a 
f  new  life,  helping  them  at  once  to  escape  from 
the  bondage  of  their  past  and  to  come  out  into 
the  new  life  of  the  sons  of  God.  His  mighty 
works  appeared  only  when  men  heeded  Him 
enough  to  begin  to  see.  Then  everything  that 
He  did  took  on  something  of  the  supernatural. 
God  drew  near  to  men  and  made  Himself  known 
in  His  words  and  in  His  works,  as  in  Himself. 
This  was  the  work  which  no  other  had  ever 


DEFEATING  GOD  137 

done  and  which  constitutes  the  miraculous  ele- 
ment in  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 

And  now  they  treated  His  words  lightly  and 
tossed  them  about  as  if  they  were  no  more  than 
the  casuistry  of  the  rabbis.  His  deeds,  so  pe- 
culiar to  Himself  in  their  beneficence  and  in 
their  wonderful  power,  they  swept  aside.  They 
even  said,  *'  He  has  a  devil.  These  exceptional 
works  are  witness  to  Beelzebub."  Himself  they 
ignored.  "  He  is  only  another  rabbi,  one  more 
of  the  many  talkers."  So  they  did  not  believe. 
And  because  of  their  unbelief  His  mighty  works 
in  their  behalf  were  not  performed.  He  could 
do  nothing.  Therefore  He  went  away  and 
never  returned.  The  record  stands  as  we  read 
it,  and  Nazareth  remains  a  monument  of  lost 
opportunities.  It  is  a  little  village  to  which  the 
traveller  goes  to  find  that  it  has  no  other  monu- 
ment of  Jesus  than  the  cliff  over  which  His 
neighbours  would  have  thrown  Him  in  their  hot 
passion  of  hate.  And  all  this  because  they  did 
not  believe.  The  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 
"Mighty  Works,"  are  what  God  alone  can  do. 
They  are  what  show  God  to  us,  and  show  us  to 
ourselves.  They  are  whatever  makes  God  real, 
or  makes  real  to  men  the  heart  of  religion. 
"  God  and  the  soul,  the  soul  and  God,"  as  Har- 
nack  says,  "  is  the  substance  of  Christianity." 
All  else  is  secondary. 


ii 


I 


138         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Jesus  came  to  reach  the  souls  of  men.  Not 
to  believe  in  Him  is  to  close  the  soul  to  God, 
and  to  shut  out  God  from  the  soul.  If  He  is 
prevented,  therefore,  from  doing  the  one  thing 
for  which  He  has  come  into  our  earthly  life,  God 
is  defeated  in  what  may  be  called  the  supreme 
purpose  of  the  Divine  Heart.  For  as  the  crea- 
tive work  at  the  beginning  led  up  to  man  as 
the  crown  of  all,  so  all  God's  providential  deal- 
ings lead  up  to  the  manifestation  of  Himself  and 
the  opening  of  men's  hearts  to  His  indwelling. 
As  the  public  rejection  of  Christ  by  the  na- 
tion of  Israel  in  its  delivering  Him  to  Pilate, 
and  their  pressing  him  to  execution,  so  the  re- 
jection of  Christ  by  the  refusal  of  the  individual 
soul  to  hear  His  message  and  heed  His  sum- 
mons is  that  rejection  which  thwarts,  not  a  pass- 
ing impulse  in  the  heart  of  God,  but  defeats 
I  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  eternal  purpose 
which  underlies  all  God's  relation  to  His  chil- 
dren. He  has  made  us  for  Himself,  and  if  we 
are  not  willing  to  give  to  Him  His  own,  if  we 
persist  in  closing  our  hearts  to  Him,  if  we,  in  a 
word,  do  not  believe  in  Him  or  in  His  purpose 
concerning  us,  in  that  we  do  not  receive  His 
message  or  recognize  His  presence  in  the  Per- 
son of  His  Son,  our  Saviour,  then  all  that  God 
purposes  to  accomplish  in  us  is  defeated,  and 
we  are  left  to  a  life,  if  it  may  be  called  a  life, 


DEFEATING  GOD  139 

from  which  God  is  excluded,  and  in  which  the 
consequences  of  our  own  ignorance  and  our 
own  willfulness,  and  our  own  spirit  of  rebellion 
must  be  faced.  Therefore,  the  rapidity  of  the 
change  which  takes  place  in  the  heart  that  is 
careless,  and  the  finality  of  the  result ;  for  indif- 
ference quickly  passes  into  doubt,  and  doubt 
stiffens  into  denial,  and  denial  hardens  itself 
into  persistent  antagonism,  and  the  soul  that 
will  not  believe  becomes  the  soul  that  at  last  has 
been  fixed  in  hostility  to  its  Maker.  No  wonder, 
then,  that  the  mightiest  of  all  God's  works  is 
the  changing  of  the  soul  of  the  sinner.  It  is  a 
marvellous  process  in  which  attention  is  first  ar- 
rested. Anxiety  over  one's  self  quickly  follows. 
Effort  begins  to  appear  in  our  awakened  pur- 
pose to  strive  for  something  better  ;  and  faith 
blossoms,  as  the  gift  of  God  Himself  bringing 
the  assurance  of  forgiveness  for  the  past  and 
strength  for  the  future,  and,  at  present,  a  sur- 
prising peace. 

This  was  what  the  men  of  Nazareth  rejected. 
They  did  not  know  it.  They  had  little  care. 
We  may  think  that  they  would  have  done  very 
differently  could  they  have  been  aroused.  The 
fact  remains  that  Jesus  Christ  had  come  to 
them,  had  walked  in  their  streets,  had  taught  in 
their  synagogue,  and  had  appealed  to  them  in 
all  the  ways  He  found  open  to  Him  ;  but  they 


140         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ignored  His  presence.  They  would  not  be- 
lieve. And  because  of  their  unbelief  simply, — 
not  their  antagonism,  not  their  arguing  against 
Him,  not  their  seeking  even  to  kill  Him, — but 
simply  because  of  their  unbelief,  He  had  to  go 
away  from  them  never  to  return  ;  and  Nazareth 
is  what  it  is  to-day. 

Many  are  those  in  this  Christian  community 
who  are  walking  in  their  steps.  To  many, 
alas  !  it  would  appear,  as  to  them,  Jesus  may 
have  come  for  the  last  time.  That  you  will  your- 
selves determine.  Oh,  do  not  sweep  the  thought 
aside.  The  text  and  this  sermon  are  one  more 
appeal.     Defeat  God  !  and  what  remains  ? 


XII 

THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED 

*'  But  the  Lord  answered,  and  said  unto  her  :  '  Martha,  Martha, 
thou  art  anxious  and  troubled  about  many  things  :  but  one  thing  is 
needful :  for  Mary  hath  chosen  the  good  part,  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  her. '  " — Lu^e  lo :  41-42. 

OUR  sympathies  join  with  those  of  the 
world  which  for  many  centuries  have 
gone  out  to  the  much  troubled  Martha. 
Her  experience  pictures  the  common  lot.  It 
is  appointed  to  us  all  more  or  less  constantly 
to  be  anxious  and  troubled ;  at  least,  we  feel 
that  we  cannot  escape  it.  Either  our  own 
necessities  and  condition,  or  the  necessities  and 
conditions  of  those  about  us,  press  hard  upon 
our  hearts.  Even  the  lightest  hearted  and  the 
most  joyous  among  us,  pausing  to  look  back, 
are  so  conscious  of  the  cares  that  have  attended 
us,  the  trials  through  which  we  have  passed, 
and  especially  the  many  failures  we  have  made, 
the  good  resolutions  broken,  the  purposes  not 
attained,  that  when  we  find  ourselves  looking 
into  that  little  home  at  Bethany,  our  hearts  go 
out  with  quick  sympathy  to  the  burdened 
sister. 

141 


142         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

But  whatever  may  be  the  common  experi- 
ence or  whatever  is  the  pecuhar  contribution 
which  such  care-taking  souls  make  to  the  com- 
mon Hfe,  and  however  great  the  obHgation 
under  which  we  are  to  the  Marthas  in  our  own 
homes  and  in  the  Hfe  about  us,  our  Lord  on 
this  occasion  passed  that  by  in  order  that  He 
might  call  to  our  attention  and  speak  with 
peculiar  solemnity  of  another  aspect  of  service 
which  Mary's  conduct  gave  Him  the  opportunity 
of  emphasizing. 

Whatever  our  first  impression  may  be,  we 
cannot  fail  to  note  with  what  care  He  expresses 
His  judgment,  and  with  what  manifest  purpose 
He  put  it  in  a  form  to  make  it  solemn  teaching 
for  His  Church  and  His  followers  for  all  the 
future. 

He  was  far  from  depreciating  Martha's 
service  or  Martha's  affection.  It  is  expressly 
said,  **  Now  Jesus  loved  Mary  and  Martha,"  as 
well  as  their  brother  Lazarus. 

There  is  no  occasion  for  making  comparison 
between  the  sisters  or  entering  into  discussion 
as  to  the  blessing  of  such  careful  service  as 
Martha  rendered.  We  are  free  to  turn  our 
minds  in  the  channel  of  our  Lord's  thought, 
and  to  seek  to  discover,  if  we  may,  just  what 
was  the  great  truth  which  then  filled  His 
thoughts  and  which  He  sought  to  make  up- 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  143 

permost  in  ours.  So  we  ask  ourselves  be- 
fore the  open  text,  "  What  was  it  in  Mary's  act 
which  won  for  her  and  for  it  such  distinguished 
preeminence  ?" 

We  all  know  the  difference  between  the  gift 
that  is  the  expression  of  a  grateful  heart  and 
the  gift  the  value  of  which  lies  in  its  costliness. 
The  worth  of  the  one  is  exactly  measured  by 
its  price  in  the  market,  by  the  immediate  use  to 
which  it  can  be  put,  or  in  the  exchange  which 
it  will  secure.  The  other  may  have  no  market 
value.  It  is  but  a  withered  flower,  a  bit  of  rib- 
bon, a  leaf  sent  in  a  letter,  some  fragment  of 
handiwork,  but  it  is  the  expression  of  a  love 
that  is  embodied  in  the  gift,  a  love  that  tries  to 
find  utterance,  that  does  not  wait  to  obtain  a 
gift  of  value,  but  that  knows  its  own  worth,  and 
rejoices  in  the  opportunity  to  pour  itself  out 
upon  the  one  who  has  called  it  forth. 

St.  John  gives  us  an  account  of  another  inci- 
dent in  this  little  home  in  Bethany,  where  Mary 
produced  a  box  of  costly  ointment  and  poured 
it  out  in  anointing  the  Saviour's  feet,  while 
Judas  challenged  the  waste  and  figured  the 
money  value  of  the  gift  if  only  it  had  been  sold 
that  it  might  be  given  to  the  poor. 

In  what  seems  to  be  another  account  of  the 
same  incident,  St.  Mark  couples  with  it  the  ex- 
pression of  our  Lord,  which  is  illuminative  of 


144         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  thought  before  us.  **  Let  her  alone,"  He 
said,  "  she  hath  wrought,"  not  **  a  good  work," 
as  it  is  in  our  Enghsh  Bible,  but  in  the  more 
expressive  Greek,  ''  a  beautiful  work,"  *'  upon 
Me." 

It  had  in  it  just  that  added  touch  which  gives 
true  value.  What  the  beautiful  form  is  to  the 
vase,  the  delicate  fragrance  and  exquisite  colour- 
ing to  the  rose,  the  fineness  of  finish  to  a  work 
of  art,  the  charm  in  personal  bearing,  that  which 
we  feel,  but  find  it  difficult  to  describe,  what 
makes  one  thing  so  much  more  precious  than 
another  having  apparently  equal  usefulness, 
this  lay  in  this  act  of  Mary's. 

It  is  because  love  carries  this  power  in  itself 
to  make  the  common  deed,  the  casual  word,  the 
passing  opportunity,  the  occasion  for  its  expres- 
sion. The  love-inspired  act  differs  so  much 
from  any  other  !  Mary  in  some  way  was  doing 
a  beautiful  deed,  and  our  Lord  recognized  it, 
and  seized  it,  and  held  it  up  in  perpetual  re- 
membrance as  marking  that  relation  to  Himself 
which  He  often  characterized  as  of  superlative 
preciousness. 

We  all  know  what  it  means  in  common  life, 
but  we  ask  ourselves,  **  Are  we  thoughtful  of 
it  ?  As  the  days  and  weeks  go  by,  are  we  mind- 
ful to  seek  occasion  for  it  ?  Do  we  do  this  beau- 
tiful deed  in  our  relations  to  those  we  love  in 


i| 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  145 

the  home,  in  the  circles  of  friendship,  in  our 
daily  intercourse  ?  The  caress,  the  spoken  word, 
the  turning  aside  to  sit  at  the  feet, — in  some 
way  to  give  utterance  to  the  affection  that  fills 
the  heart  and  carries  with  it  its  perpetual  delight 
to  ourselves  and  those  whom  we  love,  are  we 
mindful  of  it  ?  Or  do  we  allow  it  to  be  crowded 
aside  by  what  we  call  the  pressure  of  business, 
or  the  multitude  of  our  cares,  or  the  justifying 
excuse  that  it  has  been  expressed  before,  and 
everybody  knows  it  already  ?  Here  at  once  is 
the  summons  of  the  text  for  more  frequent  ex- 
pression of  love  that  conquers  all,  of  the  love 
that  satisfies  the  heart,  the  love  which  is  in  itself  '  | 
the  joy  and  the  supreme  content  of  life. 

But  this  was  by  no  means  all  in  Mary's  act. 
Love  seeks  comradeship ;  and  comradeship  is 
both  the  fruit  and  the  root  of  love.  Such  dear 
friends  walk  hand  in  hand.  We  find  strength 
in  the  sharing  of  a  living  presence.  We  utter 
our  casual  thought  with  the  sweet  consciousness 
that  it  is  understood,  and  with  eager  expectancy 
of  the  prompt  and  sympathetic  response. 

How  desolate  is  the  life  which  finds  no  re- 
sponse, the  lonely  life  of  one  who  has  no  com- 
rades, or  who  has  schooled  himself  perforce  of 
hard  necessity  of  nature  or  of  experience,  to 
withdraw  within  himself  as  the  snail  within  his 
shell,  and  to  travel  in  abiding  loneliness. 


146         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

It  is  beautiful  to  think  that  our  Lord,  in  His 
complete  humanity,  longed  for  that  and  re- 
sponded to  that  which  we  find  sweetest  and  best 
in  our  own  life. 

The  cherished  friend  is  coming  to  our  house. 
How  often  we  busy  ourselves  anxiously  with 
careful  preparation,  only,  when  he  comes,  to  find 
ourselves  too  tired  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  in- 
tercourse, the  thought  of  which  has  filled  our 
heart  in  anticipation.  But  when  we  are  wise, 
how  careful  we  are  that  there  should  be  no 
such  interruption,  and  how  promptly,  when  the 
friend  has  come,  we  put  all  else  aside  and  heart 
answereth  to  heart  in  the  loving  intercourse 
which  often  in  its  long  experience  but  finds  its 
full  fruition  in  that  again  we  are  together. 

Mary  greatly  welcomed  the  returning  Christ, 
who  now  drawing  near  on  His  way  to  the  cru- 
cifixion scene,  and  soon  to  leave  that  shadowed 
home  never  to  return,  sat  at  Jesus'  feet.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  His  eyes  turned  to  her,  that 
His  heart  opened  in  glad  response,  that  His 
pulses  throbbed  with  all  the  feelings  with  which 
we  look  upon  those  we  love  for  the  last  time, 
and  are  so  glad  to  recognize  that  the  love  we 
have  for  them  answers  back  in  the  same  love 
for  us. 

This  indeed  was  the  blessed  possession  that 
was  never  to  be  taken  away  from  Mary.     In  all 


li 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  1^7 

the  years  to  come,  she  was  to  carry  as  a  treas- 
ure in  her  soul,  the  memory  of  that  hour.    She 
had  sat  at  Jesus'  feet,  she  had  looked  into  His 
loving  face,   she  had  seen  in  the  depths  of  His 
eyes  the  preparation  for  the  giving  of  Himself 
for  her  and  for  the  sins  of  the  world.     The  mem- 
ory of  that  hour  was  to  remain  so  vivid,  so 
satisfying,  so  compelling,  in  all  her  later  life, 
that  she  entered  at  once  into  the  knowledge  ,}j 
of  that  new  intimacy  with  the  Risen  Lord  which  || 
was    expressed  in  His  promise:     "  Lo,  I  am|" 
with    you    alway,  even   unto   the   end   of   the 
world." 

But  we  have  to  go  still  further.  Mary's  act 
bore  testimony  that  she  recognized  what  Jesus 
is  in  Himself,  and  what  He  demands  of  every 
soul  that  will  come  to  Him  finding  life. 

When  we  read  the  Old  Testament,  we  are 
always  aware  that  it  is  the  story  of  the  revela- 
tion of  God  to  men  like  ourselves,  with  the 
same  weaknesses,  the  same  needs,  the  same  ex- 
posures to  temptation  that  we  have.  The  rev- 
elation of  God  through  this  service  is  given  un-  ? 
der  limitations  which  exist  in  our  own  lives. 
God  was  striving  to  make  Himself  known  to 
the  world,  but  He  could  only  do  it  in  so  far  as 
the  hearts  of  a  common  humanity  were  opened 
to  the  knowledge  of  an  Unseen  and  Holy  God. 

When  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament,  there 


148         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

is  a  significant  change.  Here  is  the  story  of 
One  who  comes  with  supreme  claims.  He  is 
separated  at  once  from  common  men.  He 
bears  in  Him  the  fullness  of  life  that  is  in  God. 
He  says,  "  I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life."  He  says,  **  Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  He  says,  **  Those  whom  the 
Father  hath  given  Me,  I  have  kept."  He  says, 
**  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me." 
His  claims  do  not  change  or  cease  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  end.  His  efforts  always  are 
directed  to  leading  those  who  gather  about 
Him  to  a  true  understanding  of  Himself.  His 
teaching.  His  miracles,  His  companionship, — 
all  have  this  one  purpose.  Slowly,  with  great 
I  difficulty,  and  always  with  manifest  incomplete- 
ness, even  His  most  intimate  disciples  are  led  to 
this  knowledge.  Not  until  after  His  death  and 
His  resurrection  do  they  even  seem  to  be  fully 
aware  of  the  meaning  of  His  teaching  or  of  His 
true  character.  But  here  in  the  course  of  it,  as 
the  end  draws  near,  we  find  in  this  woman,  one 
of  the  sisters  whom  Jesus  loved,  the  expression 
of  a  heart  which  seems  to  have  opened  as  other 
hearts  about  her  had  not,  to  a  true  understand- 
ing of  His  Person.  Instantly  He  responds  to  it. 
Quickly  He  exalts  it,  and  emphasizes  the  one 
thing  needful,  which  is  recognition  of  Himself, 
the  opening  of  the  heart  and  the  surrendering 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  149 

of  the  life  with  satisfying  dehght,  in  its  obedience 
to  Him.  He  says,  "  Mary  hath  chosen  the  good 
part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  away  from  her." 
So  Mary  stands  as  the  type  and  the  pattern 
for  those  who,  in  the  years  to  come,  shall  find 
Christ,  and  finding  Him  shall  enter  into  life. 
The  weary  world  burdened  with  its  sins,  the 
broken  heart  conscious  of  the  guilt  from  which 
it  cannot  escape,  the  eyes  that  have  long  been 
blind  to  the  evidence  of  a  Divine  Love,  and  the 
ears  that  have  always  been  stopped  to  the  voice 
of  God  calling  men  to  know  Him,  and,  knowing 
Him,  to  love  and  serve  Him, — all  now  find 
themselves  addressed  as  never  before  and  led  in 
ways  hitherto  closed  to  them,  to  that  knowledge 
of  God  and  that  acceptance  of  Him  and  His 
power  to  save  which  brings  the  foregoing  things 
with  life  and  peace. 

This  was  the  message  of  the  disciples  after 
the  Resurrection.  Around  this  truth  gathered 
the  early  Church.  Upon  it  it  framed  its  creeds, 
which  were  simple  statements  of  fact,  not  theo- 
logical discussions.  It  bore  testimony  that  the 
Father  Almighty,  the  Maker  of  the  heaven  and 
the  earth,  had  come  in  the  Person  of  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ  to  be  incarnate  in  our  world,  to 
suffer  and  to  die  for  our  deliverance  from  sin, 
to  rise  again  that  He  might  open  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  to  all  believers,  and  in  due  time  to 


150         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

come  again  to  be  the  Judge  of  all.  It  was  this 
testimony  to  the  Person  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  world,  the  revelation  of  God  that 
was  in  Him,  and  to  His  power  to  bring  men  to 
God  and  to  bring  God  to  men,  that  constituted 
the  new  Gospel,  around  which  and  by  means 
of  which  the  Christian  Church  came  into  exist- 
ence and  proceeded  to  cast  up  the  highway  for 
the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  all  the 
world. 

Mary  therefore  was  apparently  the  first,  of  all 

*| ;  who  heard  Jesus  Christ,  to  recognize  something 
of  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  that  was  in  Him. 
And  in  that  hour,  so  near  to  the  hour  of  His 
crucifixion,  it  is  easy  to  see  with  what 
solemnity  and  joy  the  Lord,  passing  on  to 
look  down  upon  Jerusalem  and  weep  over  her, 
gazes  for  a  moment  into  the  shining  face  of  the 
disciple,  who  was  in  her  newborn  faith,  the 
prototype  and  the  picture  of  the  multitude 
which  no  man  can  number,  who  in  the  ages  to 
come  are  to  proclaim  Him  their  Risen  Lord. 

Finally,  Mary's  act  emphasizes  the  fact  that 
there  are  times  and  seasons  in  our  relations  to 
God.  The  Lord's  ministry  was  rapidly  passing 
away.     The  opportunity  for  the  privileges  of 

•  loving  expression  and  for  personal  service 
would  be  few.  Mary  seizes  this  one  as  it 
passes  ;  and  the  wisdom  of  her  act,  not  to  say 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  151 

its  supreme  importance,  is  what  the  Lord 
recognizes  and  approves.  It  is  not  permitted 
to  us  to  live  always  on  the  heights  of  Christian 
opportunity  or  of  spiritual  privilege.  There 
seem  to  be  often  periods,  sometimes  long,  in 
the  average  life  when  the  pressure  of  daily 
duties  is  too  heavy  for  us  and  anxious  cares 
overwhelm  even  the  most  spiritually  minded 
Christian, — periods  in  which  it  is  hard  to  throw 
off  the  oppression  of  the  daily  burden  or  to 
escape  more  than  imperfectly,  from  the  cloud 
of  depressing  care. 

It  is  well  for  us  if  we  can,  with  Martha,  busy 
ourselves  about  the  necessary  duties  and  hold 
fast  enough  to  our  faith  to  make  it  a  tribute  of 
service  to  the  Master  Himself. 

But  there  are  times  when  the  Lord  means  to 
give  us  surcease  of  care,  and  to  lift  our  spirits 
into  the  light  of  His  countenance,  and  to  create 
in  us  the  radiant  joy  of  a  Divine  companionship, 
— times  when  our  spirit  responds  to  the  spirit 
of  God,  and  when  we  are  permitted  to  hear 
the  voice  of  God  calling  to  us  as  the  still  small 
voice  spoke  to  the  prophet  after  the  whirlwind 
and  the  fire.  Then  is  the  golden  opportunity 
for  the  man  who  would  know  God.  In  such 
hours,  the  Master  calls  us  to  new  duties,  or 
opens  to  us  new  doors  of  opportunity,  or  seeks 
to  bestow  upon  us  new  joys  in  new  revelations 


152        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

of    Himself.     Well    for    us   if,   with  Mary,   we 
recognize  the  hour  and  the  privilege. 

Mary  was  perhaps  the  first  of  the  followers 
of  our  Lord  to  discover  that  He  wants  not  so 
much  our  work  as  ourselves.  In  itself,  what  is 
our  work  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  anyway? 
How  small,  how  ignorant,  how  ineffective,  and 
how  insufficient  it  is  compared  to  the  power  of 
God  to  accomplish  all  that  He  desires  and  to 
bring  in  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  when  He 
wills  !  But  He  gives  us  the  privilege  of  work- 
ing together  with  Him  for  our  sake,  rather  than 
for  His.  The  work  is  for  our  development  and 
our  discipline.  It  gives  meaning  to  our  daily 
life.  It  exalts  it  to  the  plane  of  God's  eternal 
purpose  and  makes  it  a  part  of  that  very 
eternity  into  which  at  last  we  are  about  to  go,  and 
of  which  we  learn  in  time  that  this  life  is  indeed 
a  part.  But  the  value  of  this  service  lies  in  its 
being  an  expression  of  personal  allegiance. 
"  My  son,  give  Me  thine  heart,"  was  not  only 
the  original  invitation,  but  the  enduring  one. 
It  never  has  been  outgrown  or  transcended. 
The  expression  of  the  love  of  the  heart,  the  in- 
dividual devotion  of  the  soul  in  its  entirety, 
will  ever  remain  the  best  response  to  the 
Divine  call,  for  we  shall  never  cease  to  hear  the 
injunction,  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  Me,  let 
him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  DEED  153 

and  follow  Me."  It  is  the  surrender  that  is  in- 
volved in  the  following,  the  completeness  of 
the  satisfaction  that  is  found  in  being  with 
Him,  that  constitutes  the  exalting  reward  and 
the  sufficient  service. 

Mary,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  is  the  em- 
blem of  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  true  be- 
liever in  every  age.  She  anticipates  the  dis- 
ciples themselves  in  discovering  that  though  we 
have  the  privilege  of  inviting  our  Lord,  He 
comes  as  the  host  rather  than  the  guest.  **  If 
any  man  hear  My  voice  and  will  open  the  door, 
I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him, 
and  he  with  Me."  How  little  even  the  disciples 
caught  of  the  true  meaning  of  those  most  signif- 
icant last  three  words,  "  he  with  Me  "  ! 

We  welcome  the  royal  guest  to  our  humble 
home.  We  busily  prepare  for  Him.  It  is  a 
great  honour  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  community 
that  He  should  come  to  break  bread  with  us. 
We  have  prepared  a  table  and  made  ready  our 
frugal  meal.  It  is  the  best  that  we  have,  which 
we  are  offering.  Now  He  stands  at  the  door. 
We  hasten  to  open  it.  He  smiles  upon  us  with 
loving  response.  When  lo  !  we  discover  that 
His  hands  are  full  of  gifts.  He  comes  indeed 
to  receive  and  to  do  us  the  honour  of  entering. 
In  fact,  He  comes  laden  with  that  which  will 
enrich    all  our  life.     He  partakes  of  what  we 


% 


164        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

have  to  offer,  but  in  the  partaking,  He  bestows 
upon  us  gifts  beyond  price.  For  He  is  our 
Lord,  He  for  whom  and  by  whom  and  in 
whom  all  things  exist,  He  who  has  access  to 
the  treasure  house  of  God,  He  who  being  rich, 
for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that  we  through  His 
poverty  might  be  made  rich  ! 

This  is  the  form  in  which  His  invitation  comes 
to  us  to-day.  By  the  thoughts  in  our  heart,  by 
the  words  of  His  Gospel,  by  the  prickings  of 
conscience,  and  the  longings  in  our  own  souls 
for  better  things,  He  is  calling  us  to  arise  and 
follow  Him,  without  waiting  to  make  ourselves 
better  or  to  prepare  offerings  which  may  be 
worthy  of  His  acceptance.  He  invites  us  to 
come  just  as  we  are,  because  He  loves  us  for 
our  own  sake  and  for  His ;  and  His  invitation  is, 
indeed,  that  if  we  will  come  unto  Him,  we  shall 
find  life,  and  finding  life,  shall  have  all. 


f 


XIII 

ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE 

"  Jesus  said  unto  him,  '  If  thou  canst !     All  things  are  possible 
to  -him  that  believeth.'  ''—Mark  g  :  2j, 

THE  Revised  Version  gives  a  new  force 
and  beauty  to  this  familiar  text.  In 
our  Lord's  interview  with  the  father 
of  the  demoniac  child,  following  upon  the  scene 
of  the  Transfiguration,  the  Authorized  Version 
reads,  "  Jesus  said  unto  him,  '  If  thou  canst  be- 
lieve, all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  be- 
lieveth.' "  The  Revision  puts  it,  '*  Jesus  said  unto 
him,  *  If  thou  canst ! '  " — in  amazement  that  any- 
one should  question  the  sufficiency  of  God,  or 
the  willingness  on  His  own  part  to  be  the 
minister  of  God  in  such  a  work  of  healing. 
There  is  not  a  word  of  discussion  as  to  the 
character  or  extent  of  the  need.  That  was 
plain  to  every  onlooker.  There  was  human 
misery  in  its  most  distressing  form, — a  father's 
heart  rent  and  bleeding  over  the  hopeless  con- 
dition of  his  son  lying  on  the  ground  foaming 
and  grinding  his  teeth  before  them  all.  He  had 
come  to  the  disciples,  and  now  he  says  in  his 
155 


166         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

despair,  ''  I  spake  with  Thy  disciples  that  they 
should  cast  it  out  and  they  were  not  able." 
Seeing  Jesus  approach,  with  a  last  despairing 
hope  he  had  turned  to  Him,  and  he  cries,  "  If 
Thou  canst  do  anything,  have  compassion  on 
us  and  help  us."  To  this  cry,  our  Lord  answers. 
He  turns  at  once  to  the  treasure  house  of  God, 
so  vast,  so  sufficient  for  every  human  need,  so 
near  at  hand,  and  so  available  for  all.  The 
world  had  not  known  it ;  and  the  world  would 
not  now  believe  it.  To  this  end.  He  Himself 
had  come.  He  had  left  the  joys  of  heaven, 
had  taken  upon  Himself  our  sicknesses  and 
borne  our  sorrows,  that  He  might  deal  with 
just  such  suffering  as  this.  Now  He  says, 
"  Here  is  help  immediate,  ample, — waiting  for 
your  use,  if  you  only  knew  it,  if  you  would 
only  open  your  eyes  to  see  it  and  your  heart  to 
take  it  in." 

On  the  doors  of  the  vaults  in  some  banks, 
you  can  see  time  locks.  They  are  so  arranged 
that  when  the  vault  is  closed,  it  cannot  be 
opened  until  the  hour  of  business  the  next  day. 
Bankers  have  learned  that  no  vault  is  safe  when 
the  man,  who  carries  the  key  or  possesses  the 
combination,  may  be  attacked  in  his  home  by 
robbers  and  forced  at  the  point  of  a  revolver  or 
under  torture,  to  go  with  them  and  open  it.  In 
defense  against  the  weakness  of  human  nature, 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE      157 

the  time  lock  has  been  invented,  and  now,  no 
matter  how  great  the  need,  how  large  or  how 
small  the  treasure  thus  protected,  it  is  safe 
against  any  one's  approach  or  any  one's  use 
until  the  appointed  hour. 

Suppose  the  treasury  of  God's  love  were  so 
guarded.  Suppose  that  it  were  closed  under 
specified  conditions,  to  be  opened,  and  its 
treasures  made  available  only  at  certain  hours 
and  seasons  to  meet  certain  needs,  or  at  the  de- 
mand of  a  certain  kind  of  applicant.  How 
strange  it  would  seem  I  How  comparatively 
useless  for  our  necessities !  As  it  is,  it  not  only 
is  not  so  closed,  but  the  door  stands  forever 
wide  open,  and  our  Saviour  as  He  addresses 
the  suppliant  father,  seems  to  turn  and  wave 
His  hand  to  show  the  nearness  of  the  treasure, 
the  openness  of  the  door,  the  availability  of  all 
the  resources,  not  only  for  him  who  stands 
there  the  suppliant,  but  for  every  man  in  all  con- 
ditions. Over  it  is  written  *' Whosoever  will 
may  come."  All  that  we  have  to  do  is  to  see 
this  and  to  believe  it,  and  to  believe  it  so  far 
forth  as  to  take  advantage  of  it.  Jesus'  aston- 
ished exclamation,  "If  thou  canst!"  is  forced 
out  of  His  heart  by  the  surprise  that  any  one  in 
whatever  need  should  question  the  abundance 
of  the  supply. 

So  much  for  the  words  themselves.     They 


158         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

give  us  occasion  to  ask,  *'  What  is  the  meaning 
and  what  the  place  of  faith  in  religion?  "  The 
Bible  uses  the  word  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end, — from  the  moment  when  Abraham  be- 
lieves in  God,  and  it  is  ''  counted  unto  him  for 
righteousness,"  to  the  end  where  the  great 
multitude  that  no  man  can  number,  is  made  up 
of  those  who  have  believed  and  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  Lamb  who  now  sits  upon  the  throne. 
We  ask,  **What  is  this  believing,  this  having 
'faith,'  upon  which  so  much  depends  in  the 
Gospel  of  Salvation  ?  " 

Let  us  pass  by  at  once  the  ordinary  illustrations 
to  show  what  is  the  place  of  what  we  call  trust, 
in  the  common  life.  Everybody  knows  that 
trust,  or  confidence,  or  faith, — whichever  term 
we  use, — is  necessary  in  all  human  affairs. 

Why  does  not  the  little  child  walk  ?  He  has 
desire  and  he  has  muscular  strength,  but  he 
distrusts  himself.  He  fears  that  he  will  fall. 
The  mother  puts  out  her  finger  and  the  little 
hand  closes  about  it,  and  quickly  he  gains  the 
confidence  which  is  necessary  for  the  first  step. 
So  the  growing  boy  learns  to  skate,  and  to 
leap,  and  to  vault  as  he  acquires  confidence  in 
his  own  ability  to  do  the  thing  to  which  he  is 
moved.  So  in  turn  the  man  engages  in  large 
affairs.  We  wonder  at  the  courage  with  which 
the  business  man  will  invest  so  much  of  his  cap- 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE      159 

ital  in  the  great  structure  or  the  new  industry, 
or  the  costly  patent, — the  amazing  enterprise 
with  which  the  commerce  of  the  world  is 
carried  on  and  great  ventures  are  taken  in  far- 
away lands.  It  is  not  the  work  of  the  youth, 
but  of  the  man  who  has  learned  through  long 
experience  to  trust  his  own  judgment ;  and  that 
confidence  now  vindicates  itself.  So  the  com- 
munity creates  its  institutions  and  uses  them 
because  it  has  learned  to  trust  in  the  stability 
of  the  social  organization.  We  trust  our 
neighbours,  we  trust  the  police,  we  trust  the 
means  of  transportation  in  the  city,  we  trust 
the  Government.  We  go  about  our  daily 
afiEairs  and  w^e  return  and  retire  at  night  in 
peace  because  of  this  which  may  be  called  our 
social  trust.  Everywhere  faith  appears.  Every- 
where faith  is  necessary  alike  in  all  situations. 
We  mean  by  it  that  conviction  which  enables  a 
man  to  summon  all  his  faculties  to  unite  in  the 
purpose,  or  the  act,  or  the  mental  state  in 
which  all  his  energy  works  itself  out.  Our 
habits  are  established,  our  feelings  are  grati- 
fied, our  experience  is  made  profitable.  In 
short,  the  purposes  of  the  hour  are  accom- 
plished. 

But  passing  from  all  these  familiar  illustra- 
tions, let  me  lead  your  thought  in  another 
direction.     Consider  the  relation  of  the  parent 


160        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

and  the  child.  As  you  look  at  the  little  child, 
you  see  merely  an  infant,  but  the  father  of  that 
child  has  a  vision  far  different.  He  sees  all  the 
possibilities  of  the  future,  the  joy  of  his  own  heart 
through  the  years  of  the  boy's  growing  life,  the 
perpetuating  of  himself  in  his  son,  the  heir  of 
his  business,  the  inheritor  of  his  purposes,  the 
life  that  is  projecting  his  life  and  the  work  to 
which  he  has  given  himself  into  the  years  that 
shall  follow  his  departure.  Therefore,  because 
he  has  that  vision,  he  devotes  himself  without 
restraint  to  the  welfare  of  his  son.  His  money, 
his  time,  his  anxious  thought, — all  go  to  the 
education  of  his  child.  He  lavishes  his 
affection  upon  him.  He  gives  him  his  con- 
stant care.  He  accumulates  for  him  his  prop- 
erty. He  devotes  all  without  restraint.  And 
the  reason  is  manifest.  He  has  faith  in  that 
little  child.  On  the  strength  of  the  vision  that 
he  has  of  the  future,  his  faith  lays  hold  of  the 
unseen,  and  makes  it  so  vivid  and  so  real  to 
him  that  his  whole  life  is  governed  by  it. 
When  he  stands  with  that  infant  in  his  arms  in 
the  church  for  consecration  in  baptism,  this  is 
what  is  before  his  mind.  He  sees  all  the 
blessed  possibilities  of  a  human  soul,  the  gift  of 
God.  He  treasures  the  promises  of  God  con- 
cerning it.  He  looks  for  divine  help  in  doing 
his  part  for  the  attaining  of  those  hopes.     He 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE      161 

recognizes  the  need  of  a  strength  higher  than 
his  own.  He  asks  the  Church  to  join  with  him 
in  their  prayers  for  that  help,  because  he  is 
aware  that  there  are  possibiUties  in  the  future 
of  his  son  greater  even  than  he  himself  can 
imagine,  and  which  are  measured  only  by  the 
goodness  of  God. 

Or,  take  another  illustration. 

Two  distinct  forces  are  always  to  be  recog- 
nized in  the  development  of  government  and 
the  organization  of  human  society.  These 
forces  express  themselves  in  opposing  parties 
variously  called  the  Conservative  and  the 
Radical,  the  Tory  and  the  Liberal,  or  what  you 
will.  They  represent  those  on  the  one  hand 
whose  thought  is  set  upon  institutions  which 
they  value  because  of  their  age  or  because  of 
the  smoothness  and  efficiency  of  their  work- 
ing ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  they  represent 
those  who  exalt  principles  above  institutions. 
The  antagonism  is  deep  and  permanent.  Ac- 
cording to  the  one,  principles  exist  for  institu- 
tions ;  according  to  the  other,  institutions  exist 
for  principles.  These  forces  always  clash,  and 
in  their  struggle,  human  society  moves  forward 
and  institutions  and  governments  are  de- 
veloped. We  constantly  hear  it  said  that  men 
are  tired  of  this  perpetual  turmoil.  They  wish 
we  had  in  America  a  military  despot,  or,  if  not 


162         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

that,  some  form  of  fixed  monarchical  rule,  that 
we  might  be  spared  the  endless  disturbance 
that  comes  from  recurring  elections  with  all  the 
agitation  and  wrangle  they  make.  They 
would  be  glad  if  the  presidential  election 
might  occur  only  once  in  eight  years  or  in 
twelve  years,  or  better, — not  at  all. 

The  reply  is  that  what  they  call  disturbance 
and  unrest  is  in  reality  education.  It  is  the  op- 
portunity for  presenting  truth  to  men,  for  the 
restatement  of  eternal  principles,  for  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  minds  of  men  to  know  the  meaning 
of  life,  of  order,  and  human  society ;  that,  in 
fact,  nothing  is  more  precious,  nothing  is  better 
for  developing  and  magnifying  the  human  mind 
than  this  same  disturbance.  It  shakes  men  out 
of  their  selfishness  and  their  sloth.  It  forces 
them  to  consider  the  interests  of  others  no  less 
than  their  own,  to  look  forward  and  backward 
over  human  history,  to  weigh  and  measure  the 
elementary  forces  which  are  never  to  be  ig- 
nored. 

In  just  this  lies  the  preeminent  greatness 
of  President  Lincoln.  More  than  any  other 
president  from  the  days  of  the  Fathers  was  he 
called  in  the  critical  hour  to  choose  between 
institutions  on  the  one  hand  and  principles 
on  the  other.  The  issue  was  sharp  in  an 
unparalleled  degree.     On  the  one  side,    were 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE      163 

the  institutions  of  Slavery  and  State  Rights, 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the 
fixed  interpretations  and  habits  of  the  people 
based  upon  tradition  and  on  established 
custom.  On  the  other  side,  were  the  eternal 
principles  of  human  liberty, — the  right  of  every 
man,  whatever  his  colour  or  his  condition,  to 
the  pursuit  of  liberty  and  of  happiness,  and  the 
abiding  conviction  that  human  society  can  only 
develop  and  human  welfare  can  only  be 
attained  for  any  man  and  any  class  in  propor- 
tion as  liberty  is  secured  for  all.  He  made  his 
choice,  and  in  that  choice  he  showed  and 
secured  his  own  preeminent  greatness.  He 
made  himself  forever  the  ideal  of  the  party  of 
liberty  not  only  in  America  but  in  the  world. 

I  asked  one  of  the  Russian  revolutionary 
leaders  who  was  with  us  winter  before  last  if 
he  did  not  believe  that  the  aristocratic  party  in 
Russia  could  be  reasoned  with,  that  one  by  one 
they  might  be  made  to  see  the  truth  as  he  and 
his  compatriots  hold  it ;  and  he  answered 
"  No."  "  But,"  I  said,  "  they  are  men,  and  all 
men  are  open,  whether  they  know  it  or  not,  to 
the  force  of  argument.  Patience  and  inces- 
sant presentation  of  the  truth  will  in  time  break 
down  unreasoning  opposition  however  stub- 
born."    His   answer  was,   "  Not   in   this  case. 


164         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

There  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  kill  these 
men."  ''Then,"  I  replied,  "you  do  not  believe 
that  they  are  men.  You  think  them  beasts,  for 
only  beasts  cannot  be  reasoned  with,  and  must 
be  killed  to  be  overcome."  **  Yes,"  he  said, 
"  they  are  wolves  and  not  men."  "  Very  well," 
I  replied,  "  then  God  help  you,  and  God  help 
Russia,  for  from  such  men  as  you  and  from 
such  as  you  represent,  there  is  absolutely  no 
hope." 

Here,  then,  is  the  place  of  faith.  It  is  the 
witness  to  our  belief  not  only  in  things  that  are 
not  seen,  not  only  in  principles  that  are  endur- 
ing, but  in  men,  and  all  that  is  best  in  men  as 
children  of  God,  endowed  with  reason,  with  a 
conscience,  and  with  a  will  to  choose  between 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  between  the  better  and 
the  worse.  Everywhere  this  power  of  faith  is 
demanded.  It  is  the  one  essential  thing  in 
every  form  of  human  life.  Is  it  strange  then 
that  faith  is  the  essential  in  matters  of  religion, 
that  the  saving  of  the  soul,  man's  crowning 
possession,  turns  upon  faith  ?  The  vision  of 
the  unseen  is  not  an  idle  dream.  It  is  the 
awakening  of  those  powers  by  virtue  of  which 
we  are  children  of  God.  That  many  times  re- 
peated text  of  the  Scripture  is  in  three  words  : 
*'The  just;"  that  is,  those  who  find  life, 
who  realize  the  purpose  of  God  and  enter  into 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE      165 

it,  **  shall  live  ;  "  that  is,  shall  know  that  life, 
and  make  it  their  own,  "  by  faith  ;  "  that  is,  by 
the  use  of  this  power  by  virtue  of  which  we  are 
men  and  not  beasts,  by  which  we  can  summon 
all  that  is  within  us  and  our  very  selves  to  that 
life  which  God  in  His  loving  kindness  has 
opened  to  us,  in  which  escaping  the  bondage 
of  sin  and  of  passion,  breaking  away  from  our 
own  despairing  habits,  our  enduring  helpless- 
ness, we  can  by  the  divine  energy  planted 
within  us,  rise  into  that  better  life  where  we 
shall  know  God  and  have  strength  to  serve 
Him.  **  The  just— shall  live— by  faith  !  "  for 
there  is  no  other  way  in  which  men  can  live. 

When  God  summons  us  then,  to  believe, 
what  does  He  mean  ?  He  means  that  we  shall 
recognize  that  we  are  not  made  for  this  world 
only.  We  are  not  like  the  beasts  of  the  field 
which  to-day  are  here  and  to-morrow  are  gone, 
not  to  return.  But,  as  the  wise  man  of  the 
Scripture  has  put  it,  **  He  hath  set  eternity  in 
their  hearts."  God  has  planted  in  us  that 
capacity  for  better  things,  which,  when  we 
come  to  ourselves,  we  interpret  in  Augustine's 
phrase,  **  Thou  hast  made  me  for  Thyself,  and 
my  heart  cannot  rest  until  it  find  itself  in  Thee." 
Faith  is  the  summons  to  recognize  this,  our  high 
calling  of  God.  It  is  our  committing  ourselves 
to  that  which  is  outside  and  above  one's  self, 


166         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

reaching  up  and  laying  hold  of  God's  truths 
and  of  God  Himself,  the  awakening  of  our 
better  self,  the  summoning  of  our  spiritual 
energies  that  we  may  be  what  God  intended  us 
to  be. 

So  this  summons  of  faith  is  a  summons  to 
recognize  that  God  is  over  all,  both  in  this 
world  and  in  the  next.  We  owe  Him  love  and 
service.  We  must  give  to  Him  the  final  ac- 
count. He  has  a  vast  treasury  of  good  to  be- 
stow, joys  now,  and  possibilities  beyond.  Faith 
is  then  the  loving  response  of  the  soul  to  God, 
whom  to  know  aright  is  life  eternal.  Faith  is 
the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  remembering 
God  is  opening  the  door  for  the  sweetest  and 
most  enduring  joy.  Earthly  pleasures  pall  and 
fail ;  the  keenest  of  them  and  the  most  promis- 
ing of  them  in  time  prove  as  empty  as  the  most 
trivial.  But  when  the  soul  awakens  to  know 
God,  when  it  gathers  all  its  powers  and  gifts  for 
His  service,  it  discovers  in  itself  a  new  capacity 
of  pleasure,  a  new  fullness  of  realized  joy,  which 
is  like  manna  to  the  hungry  or  the  opening  of 
the  very  fountains  of  life  to  the  thirsty.  It  is  a 
force  recognized  by  the  soul,  bringing  at  once 
an  infinite  peace  as  it  tells  of  the  joys  that  are 
beyond,  and  of  that  life  where  we  are  to  be  hid 
with  Christ  in  God, — the  life  where  we  shall 
*'  see    as   we  are   seen   and   know  as   we   are 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE       167 

known."  The  ancient  religions  of  India  have 
made  much  of  the  thought  of  Nirvafia  where 
human  existence  shall  be  lost  in  the  eternal. 
The  faith  of  Christ  makes  that  yearning  a 
reality  and  gives  us  in  definite  form,  the  pos- 
session of  that  fellowship  with  God,  which  the 
human  heart  must  forever  crave. 

Faith  tells  us  that  we  can  never  reach  this 
possibility  or  experience  these  joys  by  ourselves. 
We  have  not  attained  to  them  here,  and  we 
know  it,  and  God  knows  it ;  and  we  cannot  at- 
tain to  them  and  will  not  without  God's  help. 
Therefore,  the  summons  to  a  faith  which  lays 
hold  upon  God  as  the  helpless  upon  the  strong, 
and  by  means  of  which  the  very  strength  of 
God  comes  into  our  life  and  into  our  hearts  ; 
which  enables  us  to  do  what  otherwise  would 
be  impossible,  and  to  work  out  by  Divine  help, 
the  Divine  purpose  in  us.  So,  the  faith  becomes 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  bearing  testimony 
that  God  has  come  to  us  in  the  person  of  His 
Son.  In  that  way  the  life  of  faith  becomes  a 
blessed  reality.  For,  Jesus  does  not  rebuke  us 
for  our  sins  or  our  follies.  He  does  not  argue 
with  us  over  our  possibilities  or  our  shortcom- 
ings. He  simply  presents  Himself.  We  see  in 
Him  what  we  should  be,  and  also  what  God  is, 
and  through  Him  the  love  of  the  Father  lays 
hold  of  us,  His  children.     We  begin  to  long  to 


168         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

be  better  men  and  women  for  His  sake.  We 
long  to  attain  to  the  joy  and  peace  which  fill 
His  heart.  We  long  to  grow  into  His  likeness 
and  to  reach  the  possibilities  which  are  realities 
in  Him.  We  long,  in  short,  to  know  and  love 
the  God  from  whom  He  comes  and  whose 
witness  He  is.  Then  we  hear  His  voice  and 
we  follow  Him.  We  believe.  We  choose. 
We  give  ourselves  to  Him  ;  and  then  comes  the 
new  life.  We  begin  to  live  by  faith.  It  is  not 
our  doing,  or  our  making  life  for  ourselves.  It 
is  God's  giving  His  life  to  us,  renewing  our 
hearts,  forgiving  our  sins,  cleansing  our  very 
souls  from  what  is  defiled  and  would  destroy. 
So,  faith, — living  by  faith — is  the  one  under- 
lying truth  of  the  whole  Bible  because  the  whole 
Bible  is  true  to  life.  "  Believe,  and  all  things 
are  possible."  Stand  off,  keep  away,  remain  on 
the  other  side,  hold  back,  hesitate,  argue,  doubt, 
and  what  follows  ?  Even  God  can  do  nothing, 
and  the  gulf  between  us  and  Him  becomes 
impassable. 


XIV 

HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS 

**  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  *  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you, 
and  dost  thou  not  know  Me,  Philip  ?  '  " — ^oAn  14:  g. 

THERE  is  an  infinite  pathos  in  these 
words  uttered  as  they  were  by  our 
Lord  in  His  last  interview  with  His 
disciples.  The  three  years  of  His  patient  labour 
with  them,  striving  to  make  Himself  known  to 
them  and  fit  them  to  be  His  disciples  in  the 
future,  were  behind  Him,  and  before  Him  were 
Gethsemane  and  Calvary.  It  was,  therefore, 
the  last  hour  of  their  intimate  relations  and  of 
His  eager  service.  One  was  immediately  to 
deny  Him ;  another  had  already  planned  His 
betrayal ;  all  were  to  forsake  Him  and  flee.  We 
wonder  that  after  all  which  had  transpired  such 
words  could  now  be  spoken.  But  the  experience 
of  the  twelve  disciples  stands  in  such  close  con- 
nection with  our  own,  and  touches  all  life  at  so 
many  points,  that  there  is  reason  why  we  to-day 
should  ask  how  it  was  that  they  did  not  know 
Him  better. 

One  reason  was,  I  imagine,  that  they  had 
169 


170         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

not  begun  early  enough.  They  were  all  grown 
men  and  probably  most  of  them  well  on  in 
middle  life  before  they  met  the  Lord.  We  all 
know  how  hard  it  is  for  men  of  that  age  to 
change  their  method  of  thought  or  of  life,  and 
how  still  more  difficult  it  is  to  open  the  mind 
so  thoroughly  and  to  reconstruct  all  one's 
views  so  completely  as  is  necessary  to  under- 
stand Jesus. 

Now  and  again  we  hear  parents  expressing 
fear  of  their  children  being  persuaded  to  be- 
come Christians  or  to  join  the  Church  too 
young.  They  say,  **  Wait  until  they  come  to 
years  of  discretion " :  as  if  in  the  years  of 
ignorance  of  their  own  hearts  and  of  the  mean- 
ing of  temptation  they  did  not  need  all  the 
help  that  could  possibly  be  given  them  by  the 
teachings  and  surroundings  of  the  Church,  and 
by  the  responsibility  of  the  solemn  confession 
which  membership  requires,  to  strengthen  them 
against  the  perils  which  lie  before  their  young 
feet! 

One  wonders  how  any  one  can  raise  such 
questions  when  he  has  before  his  mind  the 
knowledge  of  his  own  personal  history  and  of 
the  promptness  with  which  Satan  begins  his 
work  in  the  youngest  hearts.  The  fact  is  that 
the  heart  begins  very  early  to  lose  its  sensibility 
to  religious  truth.     It  has  its  appropriate  sea- 


HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS         171 

sons  for  spiritual  impression,  just  as  truly  as 
the  mind  has  for  intellectual  apprehension,  and 
as  the  body  has  for  exercising  new  functions  or 
putting  forth  new  powers.  If  these  years  are 
allowed  to  pass  without  taking  advantage  of 
the  opportunities  they  present,  not  only  do 
they  not  recur,  but  the  heart  becomes  so  truly 
indurated  that  truth  which  once  would  have 
made  a  vivid  and  permanent  impression  now 
receives  slight  attention,  and  only  with  ex- 
ceptional difficulty  gains  acceptance.  The 
habit  of  unbelief  readily  establishes  itself,  the 
jtnind  having  the  quality  of  fixing  for  itself  the 
grooves  in  which  it  runs  and  from  which  after- 
wards it  is  growingly  difficult  to  lift  it.  We  get 
accustomed  to  live  away  from  God,  just  as 
children  brought  up  away  from  home  not  only 
know  little  or  nothing  of  home,  but  become  ac- 
customed to  their  separation  from  it. 

Add  to  these  the  consideration  that  if  open- 
ing the  heart  to  the  love  of  God  is  postponed 
until  adult  life,  by  just  so  much  is  time  for 
growth  in  the  knowledge  of  God  curtailed.  If 
the  great  business  of  life  is  such  growth  that 
we  may  know  God  with  something  of  fullness 
and  personal  apprehension,  that  our  faculties 
may  enlarge  under  that  knowledge  and  the 
truth  of  God  not  only  be  made  clear  to  us,  but 
gain  power  with  us,  then  by  just  so  much  as 


172         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  time  is  curtailed,  is  the  growth  impaired. 
Men  may  persuade  themselves  that  by  post- 
poning an  answer  to  the  claims  of  religion  until 
adult  life,  they  gain  power  of  understanding 
and  know  better  what  they  then  undertake,  but 
the  fact  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  history  of 
the  Church  in  all  ages  and  in  every  condition 
that  by  far  its  largest  growth  is  from  those  who 
come  in  early  life,  and,  what  is  of  still  greater 
significance,  that  lapses  in  character  are  most 
abundant  not  among  such  young  people  but 
among  those  who  join  in  later  years.  Experi- 
ence abundantly  confirms  the  impression  that 
the  younger  the  life  that  is  consecrated  to  God, 
the  surer  is  likely  to  be  both  its  growth  and  its 
steadiness  in  that  service. 

Philip,  it  is  true,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
disciples,  finding  the  Lord  with  John  and 
James  and  Peter  and  Andrew  at  the  time  of  his 
baptism,  but  nevertheless  the  three  years  of 
discipleship,  given  to  men  already  settled  in 
the  life  without  Christ,  had  proved  all  too  short 
for  that  understanding  of  the  Master,  and  that 
complete  acceptance  of  Him,  for  which  He 
looked,  and  which  laid  such  a  burden  on  His 
heart  when  in  His  last  hours  He  did  not  find  it 
in  them. 

Another  reason  why  Philip  had  not  better 
known  the  Lord  was  the  fact  that  the  great 


HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS  173 

event  in  the  Saviour's  ministry, — His  sacrificial 
death — had  not  yet  occurred.  We  are  apt  to 
judge  people  by  some  single  great  event  in 
their  relations  to  us  rather  than  by  the  con- 
stantly recurring  incidents  of  daily  intercourse. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  incidental  acts  are 
the  important  ones  in  the  revelation  of  charac- 
ter and  in  the  establishing  of  affection,  though 
we  fail  to  remember  it.  The  love  of  the  hus- 
band and  the  wife,  ripening  and  strengthening 
with  the  years,  becomes  what  it  is  at  last,  so 
much  sweeter  and  richer  and  fuller  than  it  was 
imagined  at  the  outset,  not  because  of  certain 
single  great  acts  which  may  have  been  possible 
in  the  demonstration  of  affection,  but  because 
of  the  daily  intercourse.  In  fact,  **  the  thou- 
sand unremembered  acts  of  kindness  and  of 
love "  have  bound  them  together,  and  made 
them  to  so  know  and  love  each  other  that 
their  hearts  have  melted  into  each  other  until 
the  weaknesses  and  even  the  faults  that  pertain 
to  every  human  soul  are  either  altogether  over- 
looked, or  become  in  themselves  a  new  reason 
for  tenderness  and  for  love.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  relation  of  parents  to  children.  The  day 
comes  when  the  son  or  daughter  wakes  up  to 
discover  what  the  love  of  the  father  and  of  the 
mother  have  been  through  the  long  years  in 
which    they   watched    over   and   provided   for 


174        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

them,  though  the  years  have  left  perhaps  no 
single  event  so  prominent  in  marking  that  care 
that  it  stands  out  notably  in  its  effects.  The 
child  discovers  that  it  is  not  any  single  thing 
that  has  been  done  or  not  done  which  is  im- 
portant as  marking  the  true  relation,  but  rather 
it  is  the  whole  life  ;  and  each  year,  as  it  came 
and  went,  has  given  so  much  opportunity  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  parental  love,  which 
through  all  has  never  wearied  or  weakened  or 
changed. 

Philip  and  the  other  disciples  were  looking 
for  the  great  event,  the  shadow  of  which  had 
rested  upon  our  Lord's  life  certainly  during  the 
last  months  of  His  ministry  and,  perhaps,  more 
or  less  through  it  all.  They  had  been  touched 
deeply  and  held  by  their  daily  intercourse  with 
Jesus,  but  significant  as  were  its  notable 
features  as  we  look  back  upon  them  to-day,  it 
had  not  yet  been  so  impressive,  as  to  establish 
in  them  that  knowledge  of  Him  which  prepared 
them  for  these  last  critical  hours.  In  fact,  it 
was  with  them  very  much  as  it  is  with  us  all, 
for  with  us  religion  has  become  an  ordinary 
experience,  often  a  commonplace  one.  When 
we  are  aroused  by  the  testimony  of  others,  or 
driven  in  some  way  to  sharp  self-examination, 
we  find  that  we  are  waiting  for  some  great 
manifestation,    some    exceptional    moving    of 


HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS         175 

God's  Spirit  upon  our  hearts,  some  revelation  of 
God  in  our  individual  lives  or  inward  experi- 
ence, that  shall  lift  us  into  a  state  of  understand- 
ing or  of  spiritual  fervour  that  would  justify  our 
confession  and  satisfy  our  deepest  desire.  But 
God's  plan  is  that  we  shall  learn  to  know  Him 
in  the  ordinary  relations  of  life,  that  we  shall 
find  room  both  to  know  ourselves  and  to  put 
ourselves  to  the  test  of  that  service  which  will 
bring  to  us  the  full  and  satisfying  knowledge  of 
God  in  the  common  duties  and  relations  of  the 
life  which  He  has  assigned  to  us  each.  It  was 
to  this  end  that  our  Lord  prayed  that  His 
disciples  might  not  be  taken  out  of  the  world, 
but  kept  from  the  evil.  This  earthly  life,  with 
its  humdrum  details  and  daily  routine,  is  the 
arena  upon  which  we  are  to  win  our  honours 
and  gain  the  fitness  for  our  privileges  as 
children  of  God  which  shall  make  that  relation- 
ship a  reality. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  in  the  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances of  the  short  years  of  their  walking 
with  Jesus,  the  disciples  failed  to  appreciate  the 
opportunity  of  knowing  Him  in  this  relation- 
ship rather  than  in  the  starding  events  towards 
which  their  anticipations  were  turned. 

So  we  come  to  the  question  practical  to  our- 
selves, "  How  shall  we,  the  disciples  of  to-day, 
know  our  Lord   as  it  is  His  desire,  and  our 


176         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

privilege,  that  we  should  ? "  Several  things 
are  to  be  said  in  reply.  We  have  not  the  op- 
portunity which  the  early  disciples  had  of  hear- 
ing the  voice  and  looking  into  the  face  of  the 
Master,  but  we  can  observe  the  life  and  the 
spirit  of  those  about  us  who  love  Him.  We 
can  know  Him  in  those  who  live  nearest  to 
Him. 

Herein  lies  the  power  of  the  missionary  on 
the  foreign  field.  He  comes  to  a  community 
which  has  never  seen  a  Christian,  with  a  mes- 
sage to  deliver.  The  message  is  new,  but  he, 
himself,  is  newer  and  stranger  than  his  words. 
Whether  he  is  aware  of  it  or  not,  attention  is  at 
once  fixed  upon  him,  as  little  by  little  he  comes 
to  be  known  to  the  people  about  him  as  having 
no  selfish  motive,  and  as  animated  by  a  love 
which  is  so  strange  to  them  as  to  be  difficult  to 
understand.  But  as  it  declares  itself  more  and 
more  unmistakably  in  his  daily  personal  life 
and  in  his  hourly  intercourse  with  them,  they 
are  prepared  to  receive  his  message  and  to 
learn  the  character  of  the  Lord  who  is  his  Mas- 
ter and  whom  he  serves. 

Read  the  story  of  John  Paton  in  the  New 
Hebrides,  or  of  Livingstone  and  Coillard  in 
Africa,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  such  men  were 
able  not  only  to  live  many  years  unarmed  and 
unprotected  amid  savages  and  in  surroundings 


HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS         177 

that  would  have  been  full  of  imminent  danger 
to  any  ordinary  white  man,  but  to  win  such  a 
personal  influence  as  to  make  their  names  a 
power  long  after  their  death,  and  to  open  the 
hearts  of  a  multitude  to  the  Gospel  that  they 
preached  and  lived. 

Herein   lies  the  worth  of  the  biography  of 
such   men,   for   example,  as   General   Gordon. 
One    cannot    read   that    book   or   the   life   of 
Fenelon,  or  Madam  Guyon,  or  Frances  Haver- 
gal,  and  many  another  of  the  same  class,  with- 
out  feeling   that   the   knowledge   of   Christ  is 
within  the  reach  of  men  and  women  in  no  es- 
sential  respect   different    from   ourselves,   and 
without  being  moved  to  test  ourselves  by  that 
knowledge  and    to   strive   to   gain   the   same 
Christlikeness.     General   Gordon   was   a  born 
fighter,  but  being  such  by  nature  and  temper- 
ament the  wonder  was  that  everywhere  whether 
in  England  or  China  or  the  Soudan  men  gave 
him  their  hearts.     Many  men  were  abler,  many 
more  brilliant,  many  more  assured  of  success, 
but  there  was  that  in  him  that  made  men  love 
him  and  trust  him.     All  felt  that  here  was  a  man 
in  whose  very  face  shone  the  love  of   Christ 
which  filled  his  heart,  and  they  recognized  that 
there  was  in  him  that  intimacy  with  Christ  and 
that  fullness  of  personal  knowledge  of  Christ 
and  perfect  allegiance  to  Christ  which  made 


178         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

him  different  from  other  men  and  gave  to  him 
an  irresistible  charm. 

When  the  saintly  Archbishop  Leighton  had 
left  the  room  in  the  little  inn  where,  as  the 
story  goes,  he  had  been  storm-bound  for  a 
night,  a  travelling  business  man  who  had  been 
detained  with  him,  arose  and  said  :  "If  only 
such  a  saintly  man  as  he  is  fitted  to  go  to 
heaven,  what  will  become  of  me  ?  "  When  the 
next  morning  the  good  bishop  appeared,  that 
stranger  came  to  him  with  heart  filled  with 
penitence  for  his  sins,  and  asked  how  he  might 
find  forgiveness  and  be  led  to  the  same  knowl- 
edge of  the  Lord  which  so  possessed  him. 

This  is  the  blessing  which  saintly  lives  dif- 
fuse in  their  ordinary  intercourse,  and  this  is 
the  influence  which  is  open  to  us  all  in  the 
fellowship  of  the  Church. 

Jonathan  Edwards  wrote  the  **  Life  of  David 
Brainerd,"  his  young  son-in-law,  the  saintly  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians  in  New  Jersey,  in  which 
were  sayings  like  this :  *'  I  long  to  be  as  a 
flame  of  fire  continually  glowing  in  the  Divine 
service  and  building  up  Christ's  kingdom  to 
my  latest  dying  moment."  That  little  book, 
filled  with  the  presence  of  Christ,  as  disclosed 
in  the  life  of  one  wholly  given  to  Him,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  young  Englishman,  Henry 
Martyn,  and  sent  him  far  away  to  try  to  do  a 


HINDRANCES  AND  HELPS  179 

similar  work  in  India,  saying,  "Ten  thousand 
times  more  than  ever  do  I  feel  devoted  to  the 
precious  work.  O,  gladly  shall  this  blood  be 
shed,  every  drop  of  it,  if  India  can  be  benefited 
in  one  of  her  children."  Years  afterwards 
travellers  in  Persia,  where  Henry  Martyn  died 
on  his  journey  through  central  Asia  on  his  way 
home,  found  aged  men  who  remembered  him 
and  spoke  of  "  that  young  Englishman "  as 
**the  most  beautiful  soul"  they  had  ever  seen. 

We  shall  know  more  of  Christ  as  we  acquaint 
ourselves  with  the  lives  of  those  who  have  lived 
near  to  Him  in  the  past,  and  put  ourselves 
more  and  more  completely  under  the  influence 
of  those  about  us  who  are  living  nearest  to  Him 
to-day. 

Then  again  we  shall  gain  larger  knowledge 
of  Christ  as  we  bring  our  lives  to  the  daily  test 
of  His.  A  more  careful  honesty,  a  more  watch- 
ful governing  of  the  temper  and  of  the  tongue, 
a  more  tender  consideration  of  those  about  us, 
lest  we  wound,  or  grieve,  or  injure,  a  steadier 
purpose  of  purity,  the  putting  up  of  a  stouter 
fight  for  every  form  of  Christian  manliness  and 
courage  and  patience,  will  bring  to  the  inner- 
most heart  a  perception  of  the  character  of 
Christ  and  a  sense  of  nearness  to  Him  which 
cannot  fail  to  give  a  sense  of  knowing  Him 
that  will  bring  blessing  and  peace.     This  is  the 


ISO         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ultimate  reward  of  such  faithful  self-discipline. 
It  not  only  gives  access  of  strength,  fitness  for 
larger  and  more,  and  more  fruitful,  service, 
the  sense  of  personal  power  and  inward  peace, 
but  it  also  makes  real  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
Himself.  It  secures  His  entrance  and  abiding 
in  the  hearts  which  are  thus  enlarged  and  fitted 
as  His  abode. 

So  also  prayer  as  a  habit  and  as  a  ripening 
experience  gives  knowledge  of  Christ. 

Phillips  Brooks  said,  *'We  cannot  think  ill 
of  one  for  whom  we  habitually  pray."  Such  is 
the  power  of  prayer  to  drive  evil  out  of  the 
heart  and  to  open  the  springs  of  the  sweeter 
life.  This  is  an  immediate  blessing  that  comes 
as  a  by-product  to  the  exercise  of  the  God- 
given  power.  But  a  further  blessing  and  an 
even  more  assured  product  is  the  immediate 
and  constant  sense  of  the  presence  of  God  in 
prayer.  The  heart  that  has  shut  the  world  out, 
and  gathered  in  hand  its  faculties  and  brought 
itself  in  the  quiet  of  its  seclusion  to  the  foot  of 
the  throne  of  grace,  quickly  has  such  a  sense  of 
nearness  to  God  that  the  knowledge  of  God,  the 
understanding  of  His  love  in  Jesus  Christ  be- 
comes a  distinct  and  abiding  possession.  So 
prayer,  whatever  may  be  said  of  its  value  as 
petition  or  as  praise,  brings  this  priceless  ac- 
quisition to  the  soul  of  the  Christian  who  appre- 


HmDRANCES  AND  HELPS         181 

ciates  his  privileges  and  trains  himself  in  the 
habit  of  constant  and  thoughtful  devotion. 
Herein  lies  also  the  great  value  of  public  wor- 
ship and  of  the  sacraments.  No  Christian  can 
make  constant  use  of  them  without  steadily- 
growing  in  the  apprehension  of  the  Lord  and 
winning  an  increasing  sense  of  intimacy  with 
Him. 

If,  then,  the  Lord's  words  to  Philip  are  ex- 
pressive, what  must  be  the  sorrow  in  His  heart 
when  to-day  He  finds  disciples  who  are  will- 
ing to  live  without  that  knowledge  of  Himself 
which  He  has  a  right  to  expect  in  them  ?  Here 
is  a  method  simple  and  accessible  to  all  where- 
by that  evil  can  be  removed  and  He  can  be 
spared  that  pain. 

For  ourselves  we  may  consider,  as  we  close, 
the  blessing  that  comes  with  this  fuller  knowl- 
edge of  Him.  It  opens  the  way  for  His  love 
for  us.  He  had  just  said  in  His  intercourse 
with  the  disciples  :  *'  Ye  are  they  who  have 
continued  with  Me  in  My  trials."  "  And  hav- 
ing loved  His  own  who  were  in  the  world," 
John  says,  "  He  loved  them  unto  the  end." 
This  is  the  expression  of  His  desire  to  dwell 
in  intimacy  with  His  disciples,  and  the  record 
years  afterwards  of  the  blessing  that  comes 
from  that.  It  is  this  indwelling  of  Christ  in 
our  hearts  which  gives  power  over  ourselves. 


182         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

His  love  drives  out  all  lesser  loves.  The  love 
of  self,  so  destructive  and  so  humiliating,  shrinks 
into  nothingness  in  the  presence  of  His  greater 
love.  The  temptation  to  surrender  to  trivial 
things,  and  to  find  no  time  for  God,  and  to  give 
way  to  petty  impulses  and  unworthy  thoughts 
and  passions,  is  quickly  overcome  when  one  is 
conscious  of  his  relations  to  Him  who  loved  us 
and  gave  Himself  for  us.  Because  He  longed 
to  see  His  disciples  grow  to  the  full  stature  of  a 
splendid  Christian  manhood  with  mastery  over 
themselves  and  over  the  world,  He  spoke  with 
such  eager  pathos  of  His  desire  that  they  should 
know  Him.  Such  would  be  His  words  were  He 
with  us  to-day  ;  and,  speaking  to  us  across  the 
years.  His  word  to  Philip  is  our  summons  to 
know  Him  as  is  our  privilege,  and  to  welcome 
Him  as  is  His  due. 


XV 

THE  ENLIGHTENING  OF  THE  HEART 

"  Having  the  eyes  of  your  heart  enlightened." — Ephesians  i :  i8. 

THE  Revised  Version  changes  the  fa- 
miUar  text  to  read  not,  *'  having  the  eyes 
of  your  understanding  enUghtened," 
but  "  the  eyes  of  your  heart."  The  Aposde 
Paul  is  a  bold  coiner  of  speech.  When  in  his 
first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  he  had  occasion 
to  write  of  the  necessity  of  self-discipline,  he 
said  not,  *'  I  keep  under  my  body,"  but  "  I  beat 
my  body  in  the  face."  The  temptations  of  the 
flesh  are  as  an  enemy  in  the  arena  which  is  to 
be  met  with  all  the  fierce  vigour  of  the  trained 
athlete,  and  subdued  both  with  skill  and 
violence.  When  he  writes  to  the  Romans  of 
the  impelling  impulse  which  had  long  held  him 
to  the  purpose  of  crossing  the  sea  to  bring  the 
Gospel  to  them,  he  says,  '^  am  a  debtor  to 
the  world."  He  owes  to  them  what  they  never 
owned  and  do  not  value,  but  the  possession  of 
which,  in  his  own  mind,  is  to  him  a  burden  as 
of  a  debt  which  must  be  discharged. 

Again,  in  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians, 
183 


184         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

he  exhorts  them  to  beneficence  with  a  vision  of 
these  late  days  when  money  is  the  overwhelming 
temptation  and  the  greed  of  gain  possesses  men 
as  an  intoxication  until  they  are,  in  the  frenzy 
of  the  Exchange,  described  as  being  drunk  with 
money.  He  speaks  of  beneficence  as  a  charism, 
the  grace  of  God, — a  virtue  to  be  obtained  by 
no  human  effort,  but  only  by  divine  enduement. 

So,  finally,  in  his  second  letter  to  Timothy, 
his  beloved  disciple,  bidding  him  farewell,  he 
speaks  of  his  death,  which  was  near  at  hand,  in 
nautical  terms,  as  of  a  ship  putting  out  to  sea ; 
*'  The  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand."  He  is 
going  out  upon  that  last  voyage  from  which  no 
traveller  returns, — to  him  no  uncertain  trip, — a 
journey  to  the  desired  haven,  the  home  for 
which  his  soul  longed.  In  the  same  way  in  our 
text,  he  coins  a  phrase  and  speaks  of  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  heart. 

But  Paul  is  no  mere  maker  of  phrases.  He 
knew  the  temptations  of  the  flesh.  He  was 
burdened  with  the  great  need  of  the  Gospel  for 
the  world.  He  understood  the  power  of  the 
love  of  money.  He  had  a  vivid  anticipation  of 
the  joy  of  heaven.  Therefore,  the  terms  which 
in  the  successive  instances  he  used. 

Now  he  has  a  burning  desire  for  rich  bless- 
ings upon  the  church  in  Ephesus  to  which  he  is 
writing.     He  proceeds  eagerly  to  describe  them. 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       186 

His  prayer  is  that  God  may  give  to  them  a 
"  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  Him,"  that  *' having  the  eyes  of  their 
heart  enlightened,  they  may  know  what  is  the 
hope  of  His  calling."  That  hope,  in  his  thought, 
meant  the  full  content  of  the  Christian  life  as  it 
is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  the  joy  of  faith,  the 
assurance  of  growth,  the  peace  of  a  quiet  spirit, 
the  sense  of  fellowship  with  God  and  intimacy 
with  Him  the  source  of  all  good.  *'  The  riches 
of  the  glory  of  His  inheritance  in  the  saints." 
You  recognize  the  difference  between  an  in- 
heritance and  a  mere  possession.  The  new  life 
into  which  they  were  called  is,  in  Paul's  view, 
an  inheritance, — something  not  won,  not  de- 
served by  any  right  in  one's  self,  but  a  treasure 
passed  down  to  the  possessor  by  the  benefac- 
tion and  love  of  one  who  has  possessed  it  be- 
forehand. The  gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ 
is  in  his  eyes  a  possession  too  rich,  too  beauti- 
ful, too  precious  to  be  described  in  words,  but 
something  to  be  entered  into  and  taken  posses- 
sion of  and  enjoyed  by  the  help  of  the  Divine 
enlightenment.  He  seemed  to  see  what  we 
often  see,  young  men  entering  into  inheritances 
for  which  they  have  no  fitness,  which,  instead 
of  being  a  blessing,  prove  a  curse,  as  in  their 
inexperience  or  carelessness,  the  treasure  is 
squandered,  or  the  great  business  is  destroyed, 


186         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

bringing  evil  to  themselves  and  ruin  to  others. 
His  earnest  prayer  is  that  these  dear  friends  in 
Ephesus  for  whom  his  heart  yearned,  who  were 
his  children  in  Christ,  might  know  the  value  of 
their  inheritance,  and  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
might  be  prepared  to  receive  it.  "And  the  ex- 
ceeding greatness  of  His  power  to  usward  who 
believe."  He  knew  the  power  of  God  in  his 
own  heart  and  life.  What  he  could  not  do  for 
himself,  God  had  done  for  him.  In  the  strength 
of  this  new  power  he  had  lived  his  twenty  years 
of  renewed  life.  He  had  shaken  off  the  old  life 
with  its  purposes  and  passions,  with  its  loves 
and  hates.  He  had  become  a  new  man  in 
Christ  Jesus,  and  through  all  the  years  of  his 
great  ministry,  he  had  been  sustained  by  that 
power,  conscious  to  himself,  and  visible  to  others 
wherever  he  went.  The  power  of  God  had  been 
manifestly  upon  him.  He  had  conquered  his 
enemies,  because  he  had  been  enabled  to  con- 
quer himself. 

And  now  about  to  speak  for  the  last  time,  from 
a  far-away  prison,  to  these  young  Christians, 
his  eager  prayer  is  that  they  too  may  know  the 
exceeding  greatness  of  the  power  of  God,  that  it 
may  do  in  them  all  and  more  than  it  has  done 
in  him,  and  that,  not  their  understanding  sim- 
ply, but  their  hearts  may  be  filled  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  it,  and  that  their  whole  being  may 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       187 

be  so  possessed  with  the  spirit  of  God  that  they 
shall  have  no  difficulty  in  living  the  new  life 
into  which  they  are  born.  All  this,  he  describes, 
as  wrought  for  them  **  in  Christ."  He  has  de- 
scribed his  own  life  as  a  Christian,  as  lived  **  in 
Christ."  He  loved  to  use  the  phrase,  he  dwelt 
upon  his  relation  to  Christ  as  life  in  an  atmos- 
phere which  always  surrounded  him,  which  fed 
and  sustained  his  whole  being,  from  which  there 
was  no  danger  of  his  escaping,  and  which  finally 
became  a  part  of  himself,  as  it  were,  of  his  na- 
ture, as  the  sea  is  to  the  fish,  and  the  air  to  the 
bird.  The  Christ  whom  God  had  raised  from 
the  dead  had  called  him,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  a  per- 
secutor, and  had  forgiven  his  sins,  had  renewed 
his  life,  had  accepted  him  as  a  disciple  and  sent 
him  forth  as  a  witness,  and  was  now  waiting  to 
receive  him  as  a  friend.  In  His  name  he  had 
preached,  in  His  power  he  had  fulfilled  His 
mission,  and  the  life  that  was  in  him  had  passed 
on  to  these  other  disciples.  He  would  have 
them  know  that  power  in  its  fullness,  and  find 
their  joy,  their  strength,  their  peace  in  this  life 
in  Christ,  So,  when  he  comes  in  the  narrow 
compass  of  a  dictated  letter  to  send  his  farewell 
message,  he  compresses  his  whole  thought  into 
this  burning  prayer, — that  God  would  open  the 
eyes  of  their  hearts,  that  they  may  know  and 
feel  all  that  he  feels. 


188         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Here  then  is  the  something  that  we  want  to 
apprehend.  It  has  been  said  of  our  day  that 
**  the  age  needs  not  Hght  on  the  understanding 
but  dew  upon  the  heart."  We  all  know  what 
it  means  to  have  the  intellect  enlightened. 
Everywhere  we  are  encountering  new  knowl- 
edge. The  sciences  are  all  new,  the  practical 
affairs  of  life  are  conducted  in  new  methods, 
with  new  instruments,  and  we  may  almost  say, 
with  new  purposes.  We  live  not  only  on  a  new 
continent,  but  in  a  veritable  new  world.  En- 
lightenment of  the  understanding  seems  at 
times  the  single,  all-important  necessity.  All 
our  great  system  of  schools,  and  colleges,  and 
universities  is  to  the  one  end  of  providing  this 
enlightened  understanding  for  the  growing 
generation  ;  and  we  summon  the  young  people 
to  every  sacrifice  to  attain  to  the  enlightenment 
which  is  so  much  needed.  We  are  charmed 
when  we  come  upon  any  indication  of  what  it 
holds  in  store  for  them.  When  Professor 
Agassiz  came  to  America  and  made  his  first 
journey  westward  from  the  seacoast,  he  sat  all 
day  in  the  train  looking  out  of  the  window,  for 
everywhere  he  quickly  discovered  what  no  one 
else  had  seen, — signs  of  the  action  of  the  great 
glacier  of  the  ice  period  upon  the  surface  of  the 
continent.  Every  rounded  hill,  every  pond  in 
Massachusetts,  every  undulation  in  the  levels 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       189 

south  of  Lake  Erie  was  to  him  the  proof  of  the 
theory  of  the  Ice  Age  as  he  had  held  it.  And 
these  indisputable  signs  of  a  great  geological 
epoch  had  lain  openly  before  the  eyes  of  gene- 
rations of  men  who  had  been  blind  to  see  them. 
The  record  of  geological  history  was  written  on 
the  very  face  of  the  continent,  and  up  to  that  hour 
no  one  had  read  it.  With  what  excitement  he 
turned  the  leaf  of  the  great  story  !  With  what  in- 
terest he  told  what  he  saw !  With  what  open-eyed 
wonder  people  responded  to  the  new  teaching  I 
We  want  enlightened  intelligence  in  matters 
of  religion.  There  are  truths  as  new,  as  im- 
portant, and  as  interesting  in  regard  to  reve- 
lation, and  in  regard  to  the  Bible.  A  new  the- 
ology is  the  demand  and  the  inevitable  product 
of  every  age.  Many  men  are  intellectually  too 
lazy,  too  blind  in  their  intelligence  to  deal  with 
these  new  problems  or  to  grapple  with  new 
thought.  We  may  well  pray  that  the  Church 
everywhere,  and  all  believers,  may  have  as  a 
gift  of  God,  enlightenment  of  their  understand- 
ing. Continually  we  are  tempted  to  put  for- 
ward what  we  call  our  *'  ideas  "  or  our  "  opin- 
ions," traditional  views  for  which  we  have  only 
the  authority  of  ancestral  teaching,  in  the  place 
of  knowledge  which  we  have  gained  for  our- 
selves, or  to  which  we  have  given  any  labour 
in  the  effort  to  establish  it. 


190         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Paul  truly  was  the  last  of  the  early  believers 
to  disparage  the  understanding,  or  to  think 
lightly  of  its  importance.  But  he  knew  some- 
thing far  more  important  than  that.  Therefore, 
his  prayer  is  not  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  in- 
tellect, but  for  the  dew  of  heaven  upon  the 
heart.  The  heart  is  the  man,  and  the  man 
must  be  reached  if  the  work  of  God  is  to  go  for- 
ward. Sadly,  we  discover  that  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  intellect  goes  but  a  short  way  in 
changing  the  character.  Character  rests  upon 
decisions  of  the  will,  the  abiding  purposes  of 
life,  and  these  are  determined  primarily  by  the 
feelings.  It  is  therefore  the  enlightenment  of 
the  heart,  the  stirring  up  of  the  feelings,  the 
opening  of  the  deep  wells  of  the  soul,  and  the 
appeal  to  the  essential  nature  of  the  man  him- 
self that  alone  answers  the  call  of  God,  and  that 
alone  can  make  men  free,  in  the  large  sense  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  mere  accu- 
mulation of  knowledge  is  like  the  stuffing  of  the 
stove  with  fuel — it  remains  as  cold  and  dead  as 
the  iron  itself  until  the  fire  is  kindled,  which 
alone  can  transform  it,  and  set  free  its  im- 
prisoned energies. 

When  we  meet  a  man  thus  transformed,  one 
in  whom  the  eyes  of  the  heart  are  indeed  en- 
lightened, how  all  hearts  open  to  him  ! 

Some  years  ago,  a  young  Scotch  professor 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       191 

came  to  America.  He  travelled  from  college 
to  college.  Everywhere  the  young  men  flocked 
about  him,  and  he  held  their  hearts  in  his  hand. 
His  tongue  was  as  a  tongue  of  fire,  and  his  face 
shone  with  the  light  that  won  all  hearts.  What 
was  it  that  gave  Henry  Drummond  his  power  ? 
He  was  a  traveller,  but  there  were  many  others 
more  venturesome  and  with  more  thrilling  tales. 
He  was  a  scholar,  but  by  no  means  of  the  first 
rank.  He  was  a  fluent  speaker,  but  that  means 
little  in  a  land  of  fluent  speakers.  His  power 
lay  in  his  personality.  Every  one  who  sat  be- 
fore him  felt  that  here  was  a  man  with  a  heart, 
a  man  in  whom  the  love  of  Christ  was  the 
supreme  passion,  and  whose  whole  nature  had 
been  surrendered  to  that  love  and  was  now  per- 
meated with  that  consuming  passion.  The  love 
of  God  which  had  taken  possession  of  him  be- 
came in  him  love  for  his  fellow  men, — a  deep, 
generous  abiding  love.  Hearts  everywhere  re- 
sponded to  it  and  multitudes  of  young  men 
were  awakened  into  a  new  life  and  started  in 
new  paths  because  Henry  Drummond  opened 
the  eyes  of  their  hearts. 

We  have  only  to  ask  then  how  this  prayer  of 
the  Apostle  is  to  be  answered?  It  involves  the 
breaking  off  of  the  crust  that  forms  upon  us  all 
and  the  letting  in  of  the  light  which,  coming 
from  God,  should,  as  John  says  in  his  Gospel, 


192         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

"  lighten  every  man,  coming  into  the  world." 
The  answer  to  this  prayer  manifestly  must  come 
first  of  all  by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  As 
the  Apostle  himself  said,  **  God,  who  com- 
manded the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness  hath 
shined  in  our  hearts."  The  light  which  he  and 
his  fellow  disciples  saw  was  a  light  not  their 
own,  but  from  the  Spirit  of  God.  They  were 
only  too  eager  to  bear  testimony  to  it.  "  Things 
which  eye  saw  not  and  ear  heard  not,  and 
which  entered  not  into  the  heart  of  man,  what- 
soever things  God  prepared  for  them  that  love 
Him,  unto  us  God  revealed  them  through  the 
Spirit."  This  was  their  glad  testimony.  It 
was  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God  as  it  first 
shone  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  had 
come  to  shine  in  their  hearts,  and  which  the 
Apostles  so  longed  to  see  shining  in  the  hearts 
of  all  about  them. 

We  have  a  quick,  tender  sorrow  for  men 
who  are  blind.  Every  one  instinctively  helps 
the  blind  man  lest  harm  befall  him,  impelled 
with  a  common  desire  to  do  something  to  make 
up  to  him  for  the  inexpressible  loss.  How  much 
tenderer  and  more  compelling  sympathy  should 
we  feel  for  those  who  are  blind  in  the  things  of 
the  spirit !  This  is  the  measure  of  the  Apostle's 
desire,  the  impelling  impulse  behind  his  prayer, 
as  he  looked  to  God  to  do  what  men  cannot  do 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       193 

for  themselves,  and  as  we  hear  him  to-day  pray- 
ing for  us  and  appealing  to  us  to  look  to  God 
also  for  what  we  cannot  do  for  ourselves. 

This  is  the  great  gift  from  God  which  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  bring.  When 
Paul  stood  up  to  bear  witness  to  it,  there  were 
few  about  him  who  could  confirm  his  word  or 
even  understand  the  meaning  of  his  message. 
But  the  world  to-day  is  filled  with  men  and 
women  in  whom  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God, 
as  it  shone  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  in  a 
measure  also  revealed.  Everywhere  something 
is  known  of  that  light.  Everywhere  men  are 
ready  to  recognize  the  enlightening  of  the  heart 
and  the  change  of  the  life  that  comes  with  the 
acceptance  of  His  word.  So,  the  answer  to 
Paul's  prayer  is  to  be  sought  in  hearing  the 
summons  of  Christ  to  follow  Him.  It  begins  in 
confession  of  need,  in  the  crying  out  of  the 
heart  for  forgiveness,  in  earnest  purpose  to  do 
the  will  of  God,  in  the  confession  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  taking  up  one's  cross  daily  and  following 
Him.  The  way  is  straight,  and  the  duty  is 
simple.  It  requires  merely  the  enlightening  of 
the  heart.  One  need  wait  for  no  new  knowl- 
edge. The  little  child  is  not  forbidden,  and  the 
chief  of  sinners  may  find  the  fullness  of  the  new 
life,  as  "without  money  and  without  price,"  so 
without  previous  preparation  and  without  pro- 


194         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

bation  of  any  kind.  Every  man  may,  if  he  will, 
come  at  once  to  Him  and  get  His  blessing. 
But  that  Paul's  prayer  may  be  answered  and 
the  blessing  may  be  realized,  there  must  be  the 
beginning  at  once  of  the  clean  life.  The  foolish 
heart  was  darkened  by  wrong-doing.  Men  have 
always  erred  in  their  hearts  and  lost  the  vision 
of  truth  when  they  have  done  what  they  knew 
to  be  wrong.  Satan  has  been  recognized  as 
filling  men's  hearts,  when  they  have  been  led 
away  in  falsehood  and  in  shame.  Personal  im- 
purity, as  Burns  has  said,  *'  hardens  all  within 
and  petrifies  the  feelings." 

If,  then,  men  would  have  their  hearts  softened 
and  the  eyes  of  the  heart  enlightened,  that  they 
may  not  only  know  God,  but  that  they  may 
know  and  attain  to  their  better  self,  this  is  the 
way  of  it, — interpreting  the  invitation  of  Christ 
to  mean  turning  over  a  new  leaf  in  beginning 
to  lead  a  different  life,  "  quitting  their  mean- 
ness," as  has  been  said,  stopping  at  once,  and 
praying  God  for  help  to  stop  completely,  the 
old  wrong-doing  and  to  give  all  their  strength 
to  the  new  purpose  to  do  right. 

This  is  the  condition  upon  which  the  eyes  of 
the  heart  shall  be  enlightened,  and  the  light  of 
God  and  the  peace  of  God  shall  take  possession 
of  the  soul.  We  are  to  remember  that  Chris- 
tianity is  not  a  duty  to  be  proved.     It  is  a  life 


ENLIGHTENING  THE  HEART       195 

to  be  lived.  And  it  was  because  Paul  knew  the 
reality  of  that  life,  the  possibility  of  it,  and  the 
attainment  of  it,  that  he  so  earnestly  prayed  for 
those  Christians  in  Ephesus.  His  prayer  for 
them  is  to-day  his  prayer  for  us,  and,  as  it  was 
a  trumpet  call  from  God  to  arouse  them  to  that 
giving  of  themselves  in  which  they  were  to  be 
leaders  in  the  service  of  God,  so  it  is  to  us,  one 
and  all,  the  voice  of  God  calling  us  to  enter  into 
our  inheritance,  and  to  know  for  ourselves  the 
exceeding  greatness  of  God's  power,  and  the 
riches  of  the  glory  of  our  inheritance  in  Christ 
Jesus,  if  we  will  only  have  it. 


XVI 

THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST 

"  If  I  do  not  the  works  of  My  Father  believe  Me  not,  but  if  I  do 
them,  though  you  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works." — John 
10:37-38. 

THE  great  difference  between  Jesus  and 
other  leaders  of  men  lies  in  the  har- 
mony between  His  life  and  His  teach- 
ing. He  alone  could  appeal  with  unquestioned 
force  to  what  all  men  could  see  of  His  character 
and  His  works.  In  every  instance  it  was  this 
appeal  which  silenced  his  gainsayers. 

Socrates  gathered  the  young  men  of  Athens 
about  him  and  sharply  exposed  the  follies  of 
their  lives ;  and  then  himself  turned  to  their 
loose  pleasures,  and  justified  himself  on  the 
ground  of  his  moderation. 

Goethe,  the  most  fertile  and  brilliant  mind  of 
his  day  and  the  first  great  teacher  of  socialistic 
principles,  laid  hands  on  whatever  he  saw  that 
he  wanted  and  did  not  hesitate  to  take  it  for 
himself.     He  lived  a  life  of  pleasure. 

Rousseau,  the  philosopher  of  love  and  the 
first  to  make  love  the  dominant  motive  in  the 
196 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      197 

novel  of  modem  life,  was  himself  so  sensual  that 
his  very  name  is  an  offense  in  many  ears. 

The  French  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth 
century  proclaimed  fine  ideals  and  sought  to  in- 
troduce a  new  era  of  thought  and  society  ;  the 
immediate  outcome  was  the  French  Revolution 
and  the  weeks  of  the  Terror. 

Even  our  own  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  phi- 
losopher of  common  sense,  the  Poor  Richard  of 
the  Wise  Man's  Almanac,  when  he  went  to 
Paris,  if  rumour  can  be  trusted,  found  himself 
dazzled  and  won  by  the  pleasures  of  that  gay 
capital. 

The  fact  is,  as  recorded  by  the  historian  of 
the  England  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  *'  the 
times  when  morality  has  been  most  preached 
are  the  times  when  it  has  been  least  practiced.'' 
But  when  we  turn  to  Jesus,  all  changes. 
From  that  day  to  this.  He  has  held  the  world 
by  what  the  Gospel  calls  His  ''works."  The 
beauty,  the  beneficence,  the  consistency  and 
the  sweetness  of  His  life  impressed  the  men  of 
His  day,  even  in  the  face  of  their  bitter  hostility. 
The  very  soldiers  turned  without  executing  the 
order  for  His  arrest,  awed  by  the  unmistakable 
character  of  the  man  upon  whom  they  could 
not  venture  to  lay  hands. 

His  Gospel  was  new,  and  for  this  reason  it 
gave  life,  because  it  was  life.     It  takes  a  soul  to 


198         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

win  a  soul ;  and  only  a  life  so  consistent,  so  per- 
fect, can  win  and  inspire,  and  remake  other 
lives.  His  speech  was  the  speech  of  the  people  ; 
the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  birds  of  the  air,  the 
shepherd  at  his  humble  task,  the  fisherman  on 
the  sea  of  Galilee  drawing  his  nets,  furnished 
the  metaphors  and  the  terms  in  which  His  spir- 
itual message  was  delivered.  And  that  mes- 
sage is  as  charming  in  those  terms  to-day  as  it 
was  in  the  ears  of  the  men  who  first  heard  it. 

But  it  was  not  the  novelty  of  the  speech  that 
won  for  Him  acceptance  or  that  made  His  Gos- 
pel new.  He  turned  to  the  Old  Testament  and 
found  no  fault  with  its  ancient  history  and  its 
archaic  phraseology,  but  He  interjected  into  it  a 
new  meaning,  and  He  drew  out  of  it  that  pre- 
cious content  of  Divine  Truth  which  had  made  it 
a  living  Gospel  to  the  men  of  the  generations 
before  Him,  and  which  makes  it  a  live  book  for 
the  men  of  to-day.  He  was  not  troubled  as  we 
are  about  the  old  doctrines  and  old  forms  of 
speech.  The  great  truths  which  had  possession 
of  Him  made  all  things  new  and  all  speech  serv- 
iceable. The  revelation  of  God  in  the  past  was 
gathered  up  into  the  new  and  greater  revelation 
of  God  that  filled  His  heart,  and  His  life  and  spirit 
were  what  they  were  because  of  the  power  of 
that  truth  upon  Him.  He  came  from  His  Father. 
He  did  the  will  of  His  Father.     The  life  of  His 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      199 

Father  was  manifested  in  Him,  and  when  the 
hour  came  to  return  to  that  world  out  of  which 
He  had  come,  His  promise  was  that  as  it  was 
expedient  for  Him  to  go  away,  He  would  send 
the  Comforter,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  who  would 
abide  with  His  disciples  forever.     This  supreme 
revelation  of  the  Godhead  in  which  lies  all  the 
possibility  of  the  Divine  love,  and  the  Divine 
purpose  and  plan  of  the  Divine  will,  and  all  the 
perfection  of   Divine   existence,  was   given   to 
Him,  and  through   Him  to  the  world.     It  has 
been  the  central  truth  in  the  possession  of  His 
Church  from  that  day.     Men  had  no  regard  for 
it  for  generations.     But  a  God  who  so  loves  the 
world,  not  sects,   not  a  chosen  people,  but  a 
world  of  sinners,  as  to  give  His  Son  to  die  for 
the  world,  was  a  revelation  new  and  overwhelm- 
ing.    The  knowledge  of  this  truth  gave  Him 
His  message  of  redemption.     It  fixed  the  line 
of  His   own  immediate  work.     The  love  that 
filled   His   heart  made  the  redemption  which 
crowned  His  earthly  ministry  complete,  and  con- 
stitutes that  redemption  His  finished  work  and 
the  abiding  doctrine  in  man's    knowledge  of 
God.     So  with  His  teaching  of  sin  and  of  judg- 
ment.     The   burden   of   sin   rested   upon    His 
weary  heart.     His  teaching  could  not  arrest  its 
destructive  progress.     Nothing  but  a  sacrificial 
death  could  stop  its  deadly  career.     There  was 


200         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ever  before  Him  the  vision  of  the  open  grave. 
The  shadow  of  the  Cross  stretched  out  to  meet 
Him.  Months  before  the  end  He  began  to 
speak  of  His  death  that  He  was  to  accompHsh 
in  Jerusalem.  What  wonder  then  that  the  vision 
of  the  Final  Judgment  before  which  all  men 
must  appear,  every  man  to  give  an  account  of 
himself,  constitutes  a  vital  part  of  the  revelation 
which  was  committed  to  Him  ?  Indeed,  He 
knew  that  the  Father  has  given  all  judgment 
to  His  Son,  and  that  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  men  are  to  find  their  final  Judge. 

These  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
faith  were  the  inspiration  and  the  controlUng 
power  in  His  life  ;  and  it  was  His  life  which 
gave  its  proclamation  of  these  truths  their  ac- 
ceptance and  their  authority.  They  laid  hold 
of  men  and  possessed  them,  because  the  men 
about  Him  saw  that  they  had  laid  hold  of  and 
possessed  Him.  The  revelation  that  was  to  win 
the  world  to  God  was  first  made  plain  in  the 
life  of  Him  who  was  filled  and  controlled  by 
them. 

When  we  turn  from  Jesus  to  His  disciples, 
what  do  we  find  ?  These  are  among  His  last 
words  :  '*  Believe  Me  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and 
the  Father  in  Me,  or  else  believe  Me  for  the  very 
works'  sake.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he 
that  believeth  on  Me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      201 

he  do  also  ;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall 
he  do,  because  I  go  unto  the  Father."     He  came 
from  the  Father,  He  lived  the  life  of  the  Father, 
and  He  returned  again  to  Him,  that  the  power 
of  God  might  forever  abide  with  His  disciples. 
Therefore,   the     promise    that    they   shall   do 
greater  works  than   His,  for  His  finished  work 
is  to  produce  its  latest  results  through  them. 
But  the  method  is  to  be  always  the  same.     They 
are  to  be  believed  for  their  works'  sake.     Their 
life  is  to  be  the  sole  sufficient  witness  and  con- 
firmation of   their   testimony.      Therefore,    we 
find  them  acting  always  in  His  name ;  Peter  and 
John  are  healing  the  cripple  in  the  beautiful  gate 
of  the  temple  and  we  hear  them  saying  at  once  : 
"  Ye  men  of  Israel,  why  marvel  ye  at  this  man 
or  why  fasten  ye  your  eyes  upon  us  as  though 
by  our  own  power  or  godliness  we  had  made  him 
walk?     God  has  glorified  His  Son  Jesus,  and 
by  faith  in  His  name  this  man  has  been  made 
strong,  whom  ye  behold   and   know."      They 
spoke  the  speech  of  the  people ;  they  were  men 
out  of  the  ranks  of  the  people  ;  but  they  were 
exalted  infinitely  above  the  people  because  they 
lived  the  life  and  did  the  works  of  Jesus.     They 
had  taken  up  His  cause  and  daily  they  followed 
Him.     Therefore,  they  could  say  as  Paul  said, 
*'  What  things  ye  have  seen  and  heard  in  me, 
do."     It  was  this  appeal  to  the  witness  of  their 


202         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

lives  patterned  after  Jesus  Christ,  and,  with  all 
their  weaknesses  and  mistakes  and  failures,  still 
strenuously  shaping  according  to  that  pattern, 
that  won  first  the  attention  of  the  men  of  their 
day,  and  then  the  place  of  authority  over  them. 
"Behold  how  these  Christians  love  one  an- 
other!'' became  the  universal  testimony  in 
the  world  in  which  they  lived.  Pliny,  from  his 
position  as  governor  in  Bithynia,  wrote  to  the 
emperor  in  Rome :  "  These  Christians  are  a 
people  who  may  be  seen  going  out  daily  to 
their  work  as  vine  dressers  and  plowmen  sing- 
ing the  praises  of  One  named  Jesus  whom  they 
worship." 

It  was  a  new  gospel,  but  not  new  because  of 
the  speech  in  which  it  was  uttered  or  the  power 
of  eloquence  in  the  men  who  proclaimed  it,  but 
new  because  of  the  lives  it  everywhere  pro- 
duced. 

We  Christians  face  the  world  to-day  with  the 
duty  of  preaching  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  is  a  new  gospel  as  much  as  it  ever  was,  and 
it  must  be  presented  as  new  ;  with  new  speech, 
just  because  the  living  speech  of  men  is  always 
changing,  and  always  meant  to  be  the  expres- 
sion of  the  life  of  the  men  who  at  the  time  are 
living;  with  new  doctrine,  of  course,  because 
new  knowledge  requires  new  forms  of  teaching 
and  new  adjustment  of  old  truth.     Every  gen- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      203 

eration  has  had  a  new  theology,  as  men  have 
struggled  to  grasp  truth  more  firmly,  or  to  put 
it  in  larger  relations.  They  have  tossed  the 
new  forms  of  thought  about  until,  as  the  win- 
nowed grain,  the  chaff  blows  away  and  the 
good  grain  is  preserved  for  the  generation  that 
is  to  follow.  We  need  new  organizations  and 
methods  unquestionably  ;  for  human  life  with 
its  ever  new  needs  requires  more  perfect  adap- 
tation, a  more  efficient  application  of  every 
truth  to  its  needs.  The  Church  has  developed 
agencies  and  devised  methods  without  end  and 
will  continue  to  do  so.  But  not  in  these  lies  the 
essential  newness  of  the  Gospel.  Not  in  these 
either  as  welcoming  all  new  knowledge  or  as 
hastening  to  adopt  every  new  purpose  and 
method  that  would  compete  with  the  advancing 
life  of  the  Church,  is  to  be  found  the  freshness 
and  the  power  of  the  Gospel.  As  with  the 
prophet  on  the  mountain,  the  power  is  not  in 
the  wind  or  in  the  earthquake.  "  The  still  small 
voice,"  bringing  God  nearer  and  carrying  con- 
victions to  men's  hearts,  is  the  life  of  the  man 
who  himself  is  moulded  by  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ,  to  whom  he  has  opened  his  heart,  and 
whose  love  possesses  his  soul. 

On  all  sides  men  are  asking  how  the  Gospel 
can  be  preached  to  make  it  more  effective. 
How  can  it  reach  the  ears  and  win  the  attention 


204         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

of  the  thoughtless  multitude  about  us  ?  Sup- 
pose we  return  to  the  method  of  Jesus.  Sup- 
pose the  Christian  business  man  without  wait- 
ing for  others,  begins  to  practice  a  new  honesty, 
without  stopping  to  consider  what  are  the  cus- 
toms of  his  particular  trade.  Suppose  each  one 
should  begin  for  himself  to  do  the  things  which 
his  heart  tells  him  are  right  as  before  conscience 
and  before  God.  Suppose  the  Christian  lawyer 
at  once  puts  in  practice  a  new  code  of  honour, 
according  to  which  he  does  not  ask  what  is 
likely  to  be  of  benefit  in  his  relation  to  his 
client,  or  what  he  must  do  in  order  to  win  his 
case  or  secure  the  reputation  which  he  seeks, 
but  asks  solely  what  is  his  duty  as  a  Christian. 
Suppose  the  physician  begins  immediately  to 
practice  a  more  careful  truthfulness,  setting 
aside  considerations  of  his  profit  or  reputation. 
Suppose  the  teacher  of  morals  or  history  or 
what  you  will,  in  school  or  in  the  university, 
should  begin  to  hold  himself  to  a  careful  con- 
sistency, patterning  his  own  life  according  to 
the  high  ideals  which  he  must  necessarily  teach. 
Suppose  that  women  became  more  careful  in 
their  watchful  unselfishness  ;  and  that  we  all 
practice  a  new  self-control,  a  new  gentleness,  a 
new  regard  for  others,  putting  ourselves  in  their 
places,  a  new  thoughtfulness  over  little  things, 
a  new  care  not  to  hurt  others'  feelings,  govern- 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      205 

ing-  the  tongue  and  the  temper.  In  short,  sup- 
pose that  Christians  on  all  sides,  waiting  for 
none,  should  do  as  some  small  banks  are  doing 
to-day.  While  the  great  banks  are  standing 
back  and  saying  they  are  ready  to  resume  pay- 
ments over  the  counter  when  everybody  else 
will  agree  to  do  the  same,  here  and  there  a 
bank,  without  waiting,  has  already  resumed 
such  payments,  and  is  leading  the  way  to  a  set- 
tled and  healthy  condition  of  public  finance. 
Following  this  example,  suppose  that  we  all 
should  begin  to  pattern  our  lives  after  Jesus* 
life  and  to  apply  in  our  relations  to  one  another, 
the  teachings  of  His  Gospel  carefully  and  prayer- 
fully, with  a  determination  at  any  cost  to  live 
lives  that  will  be  witnesses  to  Him.  Who  can 
question  what  would  be  the  result  ?  If  in  those 
first  centuries  **  Christians  flocked  to  martyr- 
dom" and  ''the  world  flocked  to  baptism,"  who 
can  doubt  that  if  Christians  should  thus  bear 
witness  to  Christ,  the  world  promptly  would 
bear  glad  witness  to  the  truth  of  His  Gospel. 
"  We  may  not  all  be  saints,"  says  Professor 
James  of  Harvard,  '*  but  we  should  all  try  to  be 
as  saintly  as  we  can."  Suppose  we  take  this 
injunction  as  an  accepted  rule  of  our  daily  life, 
and  then  should  connect  it  all  not  merely  with 
a  good  resolution  but  with  the  great  truths  of 
revelation,  with  the    Christian  doctrine  as  we 


206         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

hold  it  Suppose  we  make  it  our  witness  to 
Jesus  Christ  as  our  Master,  and  through  Him 
to  God  and  His  love,  and  the  redemption  that 
He  has  provided,  and  the  judgment  that  He  has 
proclaimed ;  then  indeed  we  would  have  a  new 
Gospel,  and  in  terms  so  new  and  so  fresh  that 
the  world  about  us  could  not  fail  to  feel  its 
power.  This  is  "the  language  of  the  people" 
which  the  Gospel  deserves.  And  this  is  the 
newness  which  will  never  grow  old.  As  on 
that  first  great  day,  every  man  would  hear  the 
message  in  the  tongue  in  which  he  was  born, 
and  would  understand. 

But  can  we  do  this  ?  Yes,  because  we  need 
wait  for  no  one.  Yes,  because  we  need  no 
preliminary  preparation,  no  new  organization, 
and  no  teaching  of  new  methods.  We  can  do 
it,  but  only  as  Jesus  did,  and  as  John  did  and 
as  Paul  did, — by  taking  God  into  our  hearts 
and  by  surrendering  ourselves  entirely  to  His 
service.  We  cannot  do  it  in  our  own  strength  ; 
but  Jesus  promised  His  spirit  to  abide  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  follow  Him. 

A  century  ago  you  might  have  seen  in 
Germany  a  barren  section  of  hill  country  oc- 
cupied by  five  or  six  hundred  wretched  people 
with  no  schools  and  no  church,  with  poverty 
everywhere,  and  no  hope.  They  were  a  pic- 
ture of  human  life  at  its  lowest.     One  day  there 


THE  CHALLENGE  OF  CHRIST      207 

came  to  them  a  young  theological  student. 
Turning  aside  from  all  other  openings  for  his 
brilliant  gifts,  he  devoted  himself  to  that  poor 
people.  Twenty  years  or  more  passed  away 
and  before  his  death,  the  fame  of  Eisenach  had 
spread  over  Europe.  Thoughtful  men  came 
from  all  directions  to  study  the  miracle  which 
had  been  wrought,  for  that  population  had 
grown  to  five  thousand  self-respecting,  indus- 
trious, intelligent  Christian  people,  created  anew 
and  living  a  new  life  simply  because  of  the  de- 
votion of  one  follower  of  Christ,  John  Friederich 
Oberlin,  who  had  come  to  them  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Master  and  had  lived  among  them  His 
life. 

One  day  you  might  have  seen  a  grizzled, 
much  worn  elderly  man  in  the  heart  of  Africa 
advancing  with  outstretched  hands  to  meet  a 
young  stranger.  It  was  David  Livingstone 
greeting  Henry  Stanley.  You  all  know  the 
story.  Why  did  not  that  young  newspaper 
reporter,  having  accomplished  the  work  for 
which  he  had  come  and  won  fame  for  himself 
and  wealth  for  his  employer,  hasten  at  once 
back  to  the  coast  and  deliver  his  startling  news 
to  the  world  ?  Why,  on  the  contrary,  did  he 
surrender  himself  to  the  influence  of  that  quiet 
man,  who  had  lived  so  many  years  in  the 
African  forest  protected  only  by  his  character 


208         THE  NEAV  THINGS  OF  GOD 

and  his  devotion  ?  Why  did  he  go  with  him 
to  his  tent  and  sit  at  his  feet  for  six  months, 
until  the  day  came  when  he  arose,  no  longer  a 
scoffer,  but  himself  a  devoted  follower  of  Liv- 
ingstone and  of  Christ  ?  Because  he  found  in 
that  disciple  of  Christ,  in  the  beauty  of  his 
life,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  thought,  and  the 
sincerity  of  his  service  the  witness  to  Christ 
which  could  not  be  gainsaid. 

Here  then  is  the  method  of  the  Gospel  for 
to-day.  It  is  the  old  method  that  is  ever  new. 
It  begins  in  prayer  to  God  for  help  in  trusting 
in  Him  and  not  in  one's  self,  and  then  leads  on 
in  doing  right  for  Christ's  sake  and  in  His 
name,  that  you  may  so  be  witness  to  Him. 


XVII 

GOD'S  SAINTS 
"  Called  to  be  saints." — /  Corinthians  i :  2, 

THIS  text  is  either  arrant  cant  or  an 
amazing  truth.  In  either  case,  it 
seems  as  remote  as  possible  from  the 
concerns  of  our  every-day  life.  We  understand 
by  "saints''  holy  men;  and  they  are  scarce. 
"Called  of  God"  seems  to  indicate  men  ap- 
proved of  God  in  some  peculiar  way ;  and  they 
are  scarcer. 

But  it  is  only  fair,  before  we  pass  judgment, 
that  we  take  time  to  understand  exactly  what 
the  sentence  means  as  it  appears  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  not  a  chance  phrase;  it  oc- 
curs frequently.  Indeed,  nearly  every  one  of 
Paul's  letters  contains  it.  The  identical  words 
open  his  epistle  to  the  Romans.  He  speaks 
in  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians  of  "  all 
the  saints  in  Achaia."  He  writes  of  "  all  the 
saints  in  Christ  Jesus"  in  his  letter  to  the 
Philippians,  of  "all  the  saints  and  the  faith- 
ful "  in  his  letter  to  the  Colossians,  and  of  "  all 
the  saints  in  Ephesus,"  in  his  letter  to  the  Ephe- 
209 


210         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

sians  ;  while  in  the  Apocalyptic  letter  to  the 
Thessalonians  he  speaks  of  God  as  to  be 
"  glorified  in  His  saints,"  and  of  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  with  His  saints.  Jude  tells  us  how 
"  Christ  cometh  with  ten  thousand  of  His 
saints."  In  the  last  day  described  in  the  Reve- 
lation, we  have  the  vision  of  the  "  King  of 
Saints." 

Here  are  two  distinct  meanings  given  to  the 
word.  It  is  the  name  for  those  who  confess 
Christ  upon  earth ;  in  other  words,  for  church- 
members.  It  is  also  the  name  for  the  redeemed 
who  are  found  in  the  presence  of  God  at  last. 
The  same  word  is  used  for  all  followers  of  Christ 
on  earth,  and  for  glorified  souls  in  heaven. 

In  the  case  before  us,  Paul  chooses  the  name 
for  the  members  of  that  little  church  in  Corinth. 
This  is  the  significant  fact.  He  is  not  speaking 
of  exceptional  men  who  have  come  to  be  saints 
because  of  some  peculiar  endowment  at  their 
birth,  or  because  of  some  exceptional  spiritual 
attainment.  We  always  have  such  men  in  our 
minds  when  we  use  the  word.  We  are  not  like 
them.  They  are  born  spiritually  minded,  we 
say,  or  they  have  lived  such  exceptional  lives 
that  they  have  come  to  be  what  they  are, — men 
quite  distinct  from  the  common  run  of  Chris- 
tians. 

Paul  addresses  the  men  of  Corinth  just  as 


GOD'S  SAINTS  211 

they  come,  good,  bad  and  indifferent.  Because 
they  are  in  that  little  church  and  bear  the  name 
of  Christ,  he  addresses  them  all  as  **  called  to  be 
saints/'  We  know  very  accurately  what  these 
men  were.  Corinth  was  a  great  metropolitan 
city  with  all  the  characteristics  of  a  new  town, 
thronged  with  people  from  all  over  the  world, 
jostling  one  another  and  crowding  in  all  direc- 
tions for  the  opportunities  of  money-making, — 
reckless,  selfish,  dissolute,  intent  on  the  business 
in  hand,  driven  and  tossed  by  every  chance 
temptation, — Jews  and  Gentiles,  Greeks  and 
barbarians.  Out  of  that  company,  two  years 
before  he  had  gathered  a  church  ;  and  they 
were  not  yet  very  different  from  the  community 
about  them. 

He  had  just  left  them,  after  two  years  of  hard 
work,  and  had  crossed  the  sea  to  Ephesus  to 
engage  in  the  still  more  strenuous  labours  which 
there  awaited  him,  when  news  comes  to  him  of 
the  evils  that  had  broken  out  in  the  Corinthian 
church.  He  is  distressed  beyond  measure.  He 
prays  for  them  and  longs  to  go  back  to  them  at 
once.  But  this  he  cannot  do.  So  he  writes 
them  this  strenuous  letter.  He  pours  out  his 
affection  for  them  and  his  indignation  and  pain 
at  what  he  has  heard.  He  describes  in  the 
most  unqualified  terms  their  doings.  They  are 
quarrelsome,  loose  of  life,  puffed  up  with  their 


212         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

own  importance,  covetous,  revilers,  drunkards, 
even  idolaters.  He  says  that  such  among  them 
are  to  be  disciplined  at  once.  They  are  to  be 
reasoned  with  and  rebuked  and  corrected  and 
made  over  with  the  greatest  earnestness  and 
without  delay ;  and  if  any  continue  in  their 
way,  they  are  to  be  put  out  of  the  fellowship. 
Nevertheless,  being  what  they  are,  members  of 
that  church,  confessors  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  names 
them  all  without  exception  "saints,  called  of 
God." 

He  is  so  distressed  over  them  that  after  he 
has  sent  his  letter  he  cannot  wait  for  a  reply. 
He  leaves  Ephesus,  crosses  over  to  Philippi  and 
starts  on  the  land  journey  through  Berea  and 
Athens  to  Corinth.  On  the  way  messengers 
meet  him,  bringing  the  news  of  the  effect  of  his 
letter  on  the  church  in  Corinth.  They  have 
been  deeply  stirred  by  it  and  are  hastening  to 
purify  themselves.  With  excited  joy  he  cries 
out,  "  What  clearing  of  yourselves !  yea,  what 
zeal !  yea,  what  longing !  yea,  what  avenging 
of  yourselves  ! "  Their  hearts  are  reached. 
They  seem  to  be  doing  all  in  their  power  to 
realize  his  desires  for  them. 

These  are  the  men  "  called  to  be  saints."  No 
matter  what  they  have  become ;  they  had  con- 
fessed Christ ;  for  one  brief  hour  at  least  their 
hearts  had  been  touched  by  the  story  of   the 


GOD'S  SAINTS  213 

Divine  love.  They  had  been  moved  with  some 
sort  of  repentance.  They  had  asked  of  God 
forgiveness.  They  had  felt  the  throbbing  in 
their  hearts  of  the  new  life  brought  by  His 
Spirit.  They  had  gone  so  far  forward  in  the 
Christian  path  as  to  be  willing  to  stand  up  to 
be  baptized  and  to  be  known  by  His  name. 
And  now,  regardless  of  how  they  have  fallen  or 
what  may  be  the  differences  among  them,  Paul, 
as  he  thinks  of  them,  sees  their  glorious  possi- 
bilities, he  addresses  them  as  still  "called  to  be 
saints,"  for  he  would  have  them  become  what 
they  should  be,  and  would  arouse  them  to  put 
forth  every  effort  to  make  real  their  possibilities. 

Here,  then,  is  no  cant  phrase,  but  the  power- 
ful summons  to  those  men  of  Corinth  to  be  bet- 
ter men.  They  could  be  such.  God  indeed 
means  them  to  be,  and  now  he,  their  teacher 
and  their  friend,  will  not  think  of  them  in  any 
other  way.  Without  qualification  he  uses  the 
title  which  proclaims  their  privilege  as  a  trum- 
pet note  summoning  them  to  make  real  that 
God-given  possibility. 

This  is  the  truth  for  us  to-day.  You  and  I 
and  all  of  us,  in  the  sight  of  the  Divine  love,  by 
so  much  as  we  have  confessed  Christ  and  are 
church -members,  are  expected  to  be  and  are 
called  to  be  saints.  No  matter  how  we  may  dif- 
fer among  ourselves,  no  matter  how  we  may 


214         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

have  fallen  from  what  we  once  were,  no  matter 
what  are  the  temptations  before  which  we  have 
shown  ourselves  weak,  God  to-day  addresses  us 
by  this  name.  We  say,  "But  I  am  bad.  I 
have  a  bad  nature  and  a  hard  heart.  I  was 
born  so  and  it  overcomes  me  ;  I  cannot  help  it." 
Or,  one  says,  "  I  have  inherited  this.  It  runs  in 
our  family.  I  am  not  responsible  for  it." 
Another  says,  '*  I  have  all  the  marks  of  weak- 
ness. I  am  red-headed,  and  my  chin  recedes ; 
they  talk  of  me  as  having  the  features  which  in- 
dicate weakness  and  proneness  to  wrong-doing ; 
I  am  a  degenerate."  Or,  "  I  am  in  such  circum- 
stances that  I  cannot  be  other  than  I  am.  My 
business  prevents  it,  or  my  acquaintances.  If  I 
were  only  in  different  surroundings,  it  might  be 
pbssible."  Or,  *'  I  am  weak  of  will,  and  I  make 
resolutions  only  to  break  them.  I  would  gladly 
do  differently,  but  I  cannot  help  it ;  there  is  no 
use  for  me  to  try,"  etc.,  etc. 

And  yet  the  message  stands.  We,  the  church- 
members  of  to-day,  as  truly  as  those  in  Corinth, 
are  called  to  be  saints,  and  this  not  by  virtue  of 
anything  that  is  in  ourselves,  but  by  virtue  of 
what  Jesus  Christ  has  done  for  us.  When  this 
letter  came  to  Corinth,  its  force  lay  in  the  fact 
that  it  was  from  Paul.  He  knew  of  what  he 
wrote,  and  they  knew  his  life.  No  Christian  of 
his  day  had  had  a  deeper  experience  of  what 


GOD'S  SAINTS  215 

Jesus  Christ  can  do,  or  had  been  in  deeper  need 
of  that  work  in  his  own  heart.  He  always  stood 
before  them,  as  before  every  audience,  aware 
that  there  were  some  among  them  who  knew  all 
about  him.  They  would  be  saying :  "  He  is 
that  man  from  Tarsus,  the  rhetorician,  the  one 
who  was  such  a  bitter  persecutor  of  Christians, 
who  stood  by  when  Stephen  was  stoned  and 
held  the  coats  of  those  who  stoned  him,  who 
was  exceeding  mad  against  Christians,  and  who 
in  himself  is  little  better  to-day."  He  had  to 
speak  of  himself  as  *'  the  chief  of  sinners,"  "  not 
worthy  to  be  called  an  Apostle,"  weak  in  ap- 
pearance and  in  speech  contemptible.  He 
knew,  better  even  than  they  did,  how  much 
there  was  to  be  forgiven  in  him  and  how  much 
need  he  had  to  apologize  for  himself  in  all  di- 
rections. But  they  all  knew  that  Jesus  Christ 
had  called  him,  forgiven  him,  and  planted  a 
new  life  in  him,  and  now  he  stood  before  them 
as  a  witness  of  that  new  life,  in  all  its  reality  of 
joy  and  strength  and  peace,  no  less  than  in  all  its 
wonderful  possibilities  ;  and  when  he  spoke  of 
them  as  also  ''  called  to  be  saints,"  it  was  be- 
cause he  knew  that  what  God  had  done  for  him 
He  could  do  for  them  if  they  would  only  give 
Him  the  opportunity. 

His  words  turn  their   thoughts    back   upon 
what  Jesus  Christ  had  already  done  for  them. 


216         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Two  things  they  could  not  forget.  Jesus  Christ 
had  come  to  break  every  yoke.  Some  of  them 
were  Jews,  and  the  Jews  were  the  great  formal- 
ists of  the  day,  tied  hard  and  fast  by  their  tradi- 
tions, Pharisees  and  hypocrites,  many  of  them 
at  least,  and  all  of  them  proud  of  their  separa- 
tion from  other  men  who  were  to  them  as  dogs, 
or  Gentiles.  Others  were  heathen,  under  the 
awful  bondage  of  pagan  superstition.  It  is  hard 
for  us  who  for  two  thousand  years  have  had 
no  ancestors  who  were  pagan,  to  understand 
what  this  is.  But  how  strong  and  how  endur- 
ing are  such  superstitions  is  witnessed  even  to- 
day in  the  common  feeling  towards  the  number 
thirteen,  in  the  unwillingness  to  go  to  sea  or  to 
get  married  on  a  Friday,  or  to  pass  under  a  lad- 
der on  the  street.  For,  what  are  these  but  sur- 
vivals of  old  pagan  superstitions  ?  The  heathen 
world  about  us  is  still  held  by  the  old  fears. 
The  woods  for  them  are  filled  with  demons,  and 
life  is  made  so  dreadful  to  many  that  they  do 
not  hesitate  to  bathe  themselves  in  blood  in  the 
awful  effort  to  escape  from  the  terror  of  the  evil 
beings  that  surround  them. 

To  the  pagan  world  of  His  time  our  Lord 
came ;  and  His  first  work  was  to  deliver  them 
from  their  horrid  bondage,  to  make  them  free 
men  and  women  in  the  redemption  that  He  had 
wrought  for  them.     We   see  this  in  the  indi- 


GOD^S  SAINTS  217 

viduals  with  whom  He  came  in  contact, — the 
poor  woman  at  the  well  of  Jacob,  for  example. 
There  was  no  deliverance  for  her  from  the 
bondage  into  which  she  had  fallen,  the  degra- 
dation of  her  hopeless  life,  as  there  is  no  de- 
liverance for  such  a  woman  to-day,  but  Jesus 
Christ  at  once  set  her  free  and  opened  for  her 
the  new  life  of  one  called  of  God.  So  of  the 
Syrophcenician  woman  with  her  little  child, — 
foreigners,  alone,  helpless, — they  came  to  Jesus 
Christ  under  all  the  limitations  of  their  life,  as 
we  can  think  of  it  to-day  in  a  poor  emigrant 
landing  on  our  shores,  and  Jesus  Christ  made 
them  citizens  of  His  kingdom.  John,  the  Son 
of  Thunder,  and  Peter,  the  headstrong,  and 
Thomas,  the  doubter,  each  found  in  Him  a  de- 
liverer. 

So  everywhere  as  He  came  in  contact  with 
men  it  had  been  His  blessed  work  to  break  their 
bonds.  And  now  when  temptation  fell  upon 
them  and  old  bonds  were  to  be  put  back  again, 
with  what  indignation  did  His  disciples  in  the 
joy  of  the  new  freedom,  protest  against  the  at- 
tempt !  Paul  in  his  letter  to  the  Galatians  cried 
out,  "  Who  hath  bewitched  you  that  ye  should 
think  again  of  going  back  to  the  old  condition? " 
They  are  to  stand  fast  in  their  liberty.  They 
are  to  be  free  men  henceforth.  No  matter  what 
their  weaknesses  or  what  the  limitations  of  their 


218         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

surroundings,  no  matter  before  what  tempta- 
tion they  had  fallen  in  the  past,  or  in  what 
bonds  they  may  find  themselves  now,  the 
Saviour  who  had  come  to  them  and  called 
them  out  into  the  new  Life  will  sustain  them  in 
it  and  finish  His  work  if  they  will  only  follow 
Him. 

The  other  thing  that  Jesus  had  done  was  to 
come  as  a  living  Christ  to  reign  in  the  human 
soul.  He  had  not  died  for  the  world  and  then 
left  it  to  itself.  He  had  risen  again  and  come 
to  stay  with  those  whom  He  had  chosen.  The 
kingdom  that  He  set  up  was  to  be  in  their 
hearts,  or  rather,  the  kingdom  of  God  was  the 
renewed  heart  of  the  forgiven  sinner.  That  in 
itself  is  the  kingdom,  where  God  is  glorified 
and  where  God  reigns.  All  are  alike  now  one 
in  Christ  Jesus.  There  is  no  difference  of  rich 
or  poor,  of  wise  or  foolish.  There  can  be  no 
caste,  no  rank,  no  privilege,  no  prejudice,  as 
between  one  and  another,  as  Christ  had  come 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and  the 
glory  of  His  accomplished  work  is  that  out  of 
weakness  men  are  made  strong,  and  that  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  need  is  the  com- 
pleteness and  the  glory  of  the  transformation. 
He  had  set  up  a  splendid  humanity  in  which 
all  the  differences  between  men  in  earthly  life 
are  to  disappear,  so  far,  at  least,  as  would  make 


GOD^S  SAINTS  219 

any  one  less  than  another  a  child  of  God  and 
an  heir  of  salvation. 

Every  one  is  called  to  be  a  saint,  no  matter 
who  he  is  or  what  are  his  circumstances.  This 
is  the  work  which  our  Lord  completed  when  in 
His  last  prayer  He  said  to  the  Father  :  *'  I  have 
finished  the  work  which  Thou  gavest  Me  to 
do." 

Two  conclusions  follow  from  all  this.  First : 
No  man  can  be  deprived  of  this  privilege. 
Some  are  rich  and  some  are  poor.  Some  are 
strong  and  some  are  weak.  Some  are  wise 
and  some  are  ignorant.  Some  indeed  are 
Americans,  and  a  multitude  about  us  are 
foreigners,  out  of  every  nation  and  of  all  condi- 
tions— white,  black,  yellow,  red, — what  you  will. 
Some  have  an  evil  inheritance  and  some  good. 
Some  carry  with  them  a  bad  past  life,  and  some 
have  a  very  different  one.  But  because  Jesus 
Christ  has  died  for  the  world,  all  are  called  to 
the  privilege  of  faith,  that  is,  to  strength  to  do 
right,  to  the  will  to  believe,  to  the  joy  of  the 
redeemed  Christian  soul,  to  the  privilege  of 
being  better  men  and  women  and  growing  more 
so.  God  expects  this  of  you  and  me  and  every 
one  of  us.  No  man  can  shut  us  out  from  that 
call,  and  no  conditions  of  life  or  circumstances 
in  which  we  may  find  ourselves  can  deprive  us 
of  it. 


220         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

I  sat  the  other  day  by  the  bedside  of  an  aged 
woman  who  has  been  for  more  than  fifty  years 
confined  to  her  bed,  almost  all  the  time  in  pain. 
And  she  is  a  saint.  How  do  I  know  ?  By  her 
life  and  her  words  and  her  spirit,  and  the  sweet- 
ness and  the  beauty  and  the  strength  of  her 
character,  by  the  patience  and  the  joy  with 
which  she  waits  upon  God  and  bears  testimony 
to  His  love  and  tries  to  be  helpful  to  those 
about  her,  making  her  life  a  benediction  to 
many.  If  such  a  woman,  in  spite  of  what  has 
been  appointed  to  her  in  trial,  may  still  have 
the  joy  of  the  saint,  and  attain  to  the  growth 
that  is  hers,  why  may  not  you?  And  how 
many  such  there  are  about  us  on  every  side; 
with  lives  more  burdened,  with  circumstances 
more  confined,  with  temptations  more  over- 
whelming than  ours,  who  yet,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  have  risen  above  them,  and  are  living 
above  them,  and  are  witnesses  to  the  redeeming 
love  of  God  every  day.  They  have  not  been 
deprived  of  their  privilege.  Why  should  we 
be  ?  The  text  is  the  summons  of  God  to  enter 
into  our  privilege  of  being  what  He  would  have 
us  to  be ;  nay,  what  Christ  regards  us  in  His 
love  as  being  already,  "saints,"  called  by  His 
love  to  realize  what  He  has  made  possible  for 
us,  every  one. 

And  the  other  conclusion  is :  we  cannot  es« 


GOD'S  SAINTS  221 

cape  the  responsibility  of  this  privilege.  As  it 
cannot  be  taken  from  us,  so  we  cannot  put  it 
aside.  *'  But  I  do  not  want  to  be  a  saint,"  some 
one  says.  You  cannot  escape  the  duty  of  be- 
ing one.  Privilege  always  means  responsibility ; 
and  since  Christ  has  died  for  you,  you  must 
face  the  necessity  of  giving  account  to  Him  at 
last.  And  in  that  day  this  is  what  we  shall 
most  have  to  account  for, — not  so  much  for 
what  we  did,  or  did  not  do,  as  for  what  we 
might  have  been  if  we  had  only  accepted  what 
He  has  done  for  us. 

If  looking  down  upon  the  world  sunk  in 
darkness  and  heathenism,  God  so  loved  it  that 
He  gave  His  Son  to  die  for  it,  and  the  world  has 
ever  since  been  amazed  at  such  a  revelation  of 
love,  how  much  more  when  God  has  made 
Himself  known  to  men  and  opened  to  them  the 
privilege  of  sonship  should  He  hold  them  now 
accountable  for  the  use  they  make  of  that  rela- 
tion, or  for  their  rejection  of  it,  if  they  delib- 
erately turn  away  and  harden  their  hearts 
against  it ! 

"  Called  to  be  a  saint"  is  the  name  He  has 
written  upon  every  one  of  us.  It  is  our  privi- 
lege. It  is  a  never-to-be-forgotten  duty  to 
make  the  life  and  the  character  that  name  de- 
scribes a  reality. 


XVIII 

THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE 

"  If   any    man    serve   Me,   him   will  the   Father   honour." — 
John  12  :  26. 

IT  is  remarkable  how  as  His  end  drew  near 
and  the  shadow  of  the  cross  darkened  upon 
Him,  our  Lord  took  more  distinctly  the 
attitude  of  a  king.  Palm  Sunday  with  its  palm 
branches  and  hosannas,  as  we  look  back  upon 
it,  seems  such  a  travesty  !  It  was,  in  fact,  a 
spontaneous  recognition  of  this  fact  in  His  bear- 
ing and  words.  From  now  on.  He  walks  as 
one  conscious  of  His  dignity.  Though  His 
death  is  at  hand.  He  draws  the  line  between 
those  who  are  His  servants  and  those  who  are 
not,  and  distributes  gifts  after  the  manner  of  a 
king.  The  nearness  and  the  certainty  of  His 
execution  did  not  dim  His  vision  of  final  tri- 
umph, and  the  lowliness  of  His  present  condi- 
tion did  not  interfere  with  the  exaltation  which 
awaited  Him,  as  from  that  royal  height  He 
pronounced  blessing  upon  those  about  Him 
who  were  faithful,  and  extended  to  them  the 
assurance  of  royal  favour.  **  If  any  man  serve 
Me,"  He  says,  "  let  him  follow  Me  and  where  I 

222 


THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE         223 

am  there  shall  also  My  servant  be.  If  any  man 
serve  Me  him  will  the  Father  honour."  He  was 
going  to  receive  that  honour  at  the  Father's 
hand  Himself,  and  in  the  princeliest  way,  He 
shares  it  with  His  disciples.  He  promises  them 
the  reward  which  is  to  be  the  recognition  and 
proof  of  His  own  final  triumph.  No  reward 
can  be  greater  than  that  which  God  shall  give. 

A  few  years  ago.  General  Roberts,  the  hero 
of  the  war  in  South  Africa,  returned  to  England. 
The  papers  were  full  of  his  praises,  and  people 
vied  with  one  another  to  do  him  honour.  The 
distinguished  order  of  the  Prussian  Black  Eagle 
was  tendered  to  him,  as  in  recognition  of  the 
fame  which  Europe  joined  in  celebrating,  and 
he  was  great  enough  in  his  assured  position 
to  decline  it,  when  for  national  reasons  the  pro- 
priety of  the  honour  was  questioned. 

Queen  Victoria  at  that  time  was  on  her 
death-bed.  She  sent  for  her  veteran  general, 
and  against  the  warning  of  her  physicians,  in- 
sisted that  he  be  admitted  to  her  bedchamber. 
Sitting  by  her  side,  she  made  him  rehearse  the 
story  of  the  campaign,  and,  listening  with  the 
greatest  eagerness  and  deepest  sympathy  to 
the  tale  of  the  sufTerings  of  her  soldiers,  she  did 
not  permit  him  to  depart  until  the  long  tale  was 
ended.  When  he  came  from  her  presence,  he 
stood  consciously  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  as 


224         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  man  most  honoured  of  his  sovereign.  All 
other  honours  sank  into  relative  insignificance. 
The  Queen  had  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  hon- 
oured above  all  others  this  servant  who  served 
her.  She  had  given  him  her  confidence.  He 
had  fulfilled  his  trust.  She  set  upon  his  service 
this  seal  of  her  approval. 

It  was  like  the  honour  which  Alexander  the 
Great  showed  to  his  friend  Cleomenes,  when, 
after  a  great  victory  reviewing  his  troops  and 
distributing  rich  gifts  to  his  captains,  coming  to 
Cleomenes,  he  simply  stepped  forward  and  put- 
ting his  hands  on  his  shoulder  in  the  presence 
of  all,  kissed  him. 

This  was  the  honour  that  Jesus  had  in  mind 
when  He  gave  promise  of  reward  to  those  who 
serve  Him.  All  other  honours  are  as  nothing. 
The  faithful  disciples  of  Christ  are  to  be  re- 
ceived by  His  Father.  Their  reward  shall  be 
at  His  hands,  and  shall  be  the  expression  of  His 
complete  approval.  No  happiness  and  no  glory 
can  transcend  this. 

This  reward  is  to  be  given  to  those  who  serve 
Jesus  Christ.  There  are  two  words  in  the  New 
Testament  for  service.  The  one  is  that  of  the 
doulos  or  slave ;  but  this  is  that  of  the  diakonosy 
— the  voluntary  attendant.  At  once  we  picture 
the  Eastern  monarch  with  his  personal  body- 
guard, his  chosen  servants,  selected  for  their 


THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE         225 

loyalty,  and  because  under  their  guard  his  life 
and  his  interests  are  safe.  This  is  the  one  to 
whom  the  reward  is  promised. 

On  that  great  day  when  the  nobility  of  Eng- 
land assembled  in  Westminster  Abbey  before 
the  open  tomb  in  which  the  body  of  David 
Livingstone  was  to  be  laid,  all  eyes  were  fixed 
on  the  quiet,  black  man,  Jacob  Wainwright, 
who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  cofBn.  He  was 
the  Zanzibar  servant  who  with  his  companions 
had  brought  his  master's  body  back  from  the 
swamp  in  the  heart  of  Africa  where  he  died,  and 
had  delivered  him  to  the  representative  of  the 
Queen  at  the  seacoast,  and  had  asked  as  his 
sole  recompense  the  privilege  of  attending  the 
body  until  he  could  deliver  it  to  his  friends  in 
the  distant  home.  Now  the  service  was  com- 
pleted ;  and  as  England  arose  to  pay  her  tribute 
of  honour  to  the  heroic  man  who  had  given  his 
life  to  close  the  open  sore  of  the  world,  all  eyes 
were  turned  to  the  faithful  servant  who  stood  at 
the  head  of  his  grave. 

"  If  any  man  serve  Me  him  will  the  Father 
honour"  is  the  surest  of  promises.  But  the 
honour  is  given  not  to  the  man  who  does 
"  about  right,"  or  as  nearly  right  as  he  knows, 
or  in  a  general  way  serves  God,  but  to  him  who 
is  the  diakonos^  the  body  servant,  the  personal 
follower,  the  one  who  chooses  the  service  volun- 


226         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

tarily,  and  having  so  chosen,  remains  true  to  it 
to  the  end. 

Such  a  servant  accepts  the  service.  He  sees 
in  it  a  sufficiency  of  opportunity  as  well  as  a 
final  reward.  The  service  itself  satisfies  him 
because  he  knows  to  whom  he  is  rendering  it 
and  finds  his  supreme  satisfaction  in  that  knowl- 
edge. Jesus'  own  service  is  the  type  of  all  such. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  He  did  the  will 
of  His  Father,  and  doing  that  will  gave  peace 
and  strength  to  His  heart. 

The  scene  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  is 
the  witness  to  the  reality  of  that  joy.  He  was 
there  given  a  foretaste  of  the  final  reward  that, 
passing  through  the  agony  in  the  garden  and 
the  darkness  of  Calvary,  He  might  be  sustained 
by  the  assurance  of  the  acceptance  which 
awaited  Him.  The  joy  of  that  hour  so  shone  in 
Jesus'  face  that  it  seemed  to  irradiate  His  whole 
being  until  His  very  garments  were  trans- 
formed. 

Contrast  with  this,  the  appearance  of  Judas 
whose  heart  Satan  had  filled,  and  made  him  the 
type  of  the  unfaithful  servant  who  is  thinking 
all  the  time  of  his  own  interest  and  not  of  his 
Lord's,  who  desires  to  do  as  little,  and  never 
as  much,  as  possible,  and  who  always  com- 
plains of  the  requirements  of  the  service. 

The  contrast  between  Judas  and  the  other  dis- 


THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE         227 

ciples  comes  out  in  our  Lord's  last  words  to 
them.  Having  been  with  Him  from  the  begin- 
ning, He  ''  loved  them  to  the  end."  He  will  not 
leave  them  friendless.  He  assures  them  of  the 
mansions  that  await  them  which  He  shall  pre- 
pare. They  shall  be  with  Him  where  He  is ; 
and  their  joy  at  last  shall  be  full. 

The  true  servant  who  has  chosen  the  service 
of  his  own  will  and  finds  his  contentment  and 
reward  in  it  is  also  one  who  sets  himself  to  be- 
ing like  his  Lord.  All  unconsciously,  the  per- 
sonal attendant  begins  to  take  on  something  of 
the  likeness  of  the  king.  It  is  a  likeness  which 
though  it  appears  in  the  whole  life,  is  within, — 
in  the  thought  and  in  the  purpose,  and  loyalty 
and  love  are  its  inspiration.  We  see  the  method 
of  its  working  wherever  loving  service  is  found  on 
earth.  The  husband  and  the  wife,  as  the  years 
go  by,  grow  more  and  more  like  each  other, 
until  they  think  the  same  thoughts  and  have 
the  same  opinions,  and  the  one  becomes  the 
counterpart  of  the  other.  So,  walking  together 
with  Christ  and  having  Him  dwell  in  one's 
heart,  must  shape  the  whole  life.  Anything  less 
than  that  is  not  a  true  service.  It  is  not  the 
forsaking  all  and  following  Him.  To  canton 
off  a  section  of  one's  thoughts  and  call  it  a  Holy 
of  Holies,  to  hang  a  thick  curtain  before  it  as  a 
place  of  sacred  consecration,  and  then  to  sur- 


228         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

render  the  outer  court  of  one's  life  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, is  not  religion.  It  may  present  the  form 
of  worship,  and  be  consistent  with  the  observance 
of  certain  conventionalities  which  pass  for  re- 
ligion, but  it  does  not  apply  to  that  service  to 
which  the  Lord  promises  the  final  reward.  On 
the  contrary,  if  one  renders  the  service  of  the 
heart  which  carries  the  life  with  it  because  all  is 
too  little  to  give  to  the  service  of  the  Lord 
whom  one  loves,  if  any  man  serve  Me  in  this 
way.  He  says,  *'  him  will  the  Father  honour." 
How  many  there  are  about  us  who  are  doing  it, 
who  are  growing  more  and  more  into  the  like- 
ness of  that  Father  in  heaven  to  whom  their 
service  is  devoted  !  The  Christlikeness  is  seen 
on  all  sides  of  us,  wherever  there  is  a  follower 
of  Jesus  however  humble  who  is  patiently  walk- 
ing in  His  steps,  doing  His  will,  and  striving  to 
bear  witness  to  Him. 

Some  years  ago  a  Swedish  cook  in  the 
kitchen  of  a  friend  of  mine,  moved  by  an  ap- 
peal which  she  had  heard  in  her  church,  gave 
herself  as  a  missionary  to  China,  and  went  off 
to  that  distant  land.  Years  passed.  The 
Boxer  Rebellion  broke  out.  She  returned  for 
a  short  visit  to  the  town  where  she  had  lived 
in  America,  and  went  to  see  the  mistress  for 
whom  she  had  worked  as  a  servant.  The  lady 
did   not   recognize   the   sweet-faced,    dignified 


THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE         229 

woman  who  had  called  upon  her,  until  she  told 
her  name.  Then  as  she  looked  into  her  face, 
she  could  hardly  believe  it  was  the  same  person 
who  years  before  had  been  her  servant.  Her 
face  was  transformed  into  a  new  beauty  as  she 
told  of  her  work  and  of  her  purpose  to  return, 
now  that  the  Rebellion  was  over.  To  the 
lady's  suggestion  of  the  imminent  danger,  she 
said  :  "  Oh,  they  are  my  people.  I  love  them 
and  they  need  me."  And,  as  with  simple  and 
unquestioned  sincerity,  she  told  her  purpose 
and  showed  her  heart,  my  friend  said  that  her 
face  shone  with  the  very  image  of  Christ.  Her 
loving,  self-forgetting  service  had  already 
changed  her  into  His  likeness. 

This  is  the  supreme  reward  of  the  Christian. 
It  grows  directly  out  of  his  personal  fellowship 
with  Christ.  It  emphasizes  that  fellowship  and 
proves  how  inseparable  personal  fidelity  to 
Christ  and  loving  appreciation  of  Him  are  from 
the  attainment  of  that  for  which  life  is  given. 
The  wonder  of  it  is  that  it  is  open  to  all.  His 
promise  was  not,  **  If  men  of  peculiar  privilege 
or  attainment,  saints,  or  prophets,  or  martyrs 
serve  Me,"  but  **  If  any  man  serve  Me,  him  will 
the  Father  honour."  No  life  is  so  humble  and 
no  soul  is  so  sinful  but  that  Jesus  Christ  has 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  it ;  and  His  redeeming 
work  is  so  effective  that  that  soul,  no  matter 


230         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

what  its  limitations  of  character  or  of  surround- 
ings, can  be  made  not  only  fit  for  the  Divine 
Presence,  but  capable  of  attaining  that  Christ- 
likeness  which  is  the  consummate  reward.  This 
is  the  miracle  of  redemption. 

Obviously,  this  is  a  process  which  begins 
with  the  first  acceptance  of  Christ  and  His  serv- 
ice. It  grows  with  one's  growth  and  proceeds 
with  a  rapidity  directly  dependent  upon  the 
steadiness  and  completeness  of  the  individual 
devotion.  In  the  heart  filled  with  the  spirit  of 
God  and  eager  for  loving  service,  the  transfor- 
mation begins  at  once  and  proceeds  at  a  pace 
which  quickly  records  itself  in  the  life,  and 
which  even  in  this  life  attains  a  perfection  that 
is  recognized  by  all. 

This  is  one  way  in  which  Christ  fulfills  His 
promise  to  dwell  in  His  Church.  It  is  not  the 
only  way,  for  God  fulfills  Himself  in  many  ways, 
but  it  is  a  way  so  evident  and  so  frequent  that 
it  may  be  accepted  as  a  proof  and  witness  of 
the  more  mysterious  presence  by  which  the 
Spirit  of  God  addresses  the  spirit  of  man. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  little  German  village  in 
which  the  tradition  lived  that  some  Christmas 
Eve  Jesus  Christ  would  appear.  One  year 
Christmas  came  in  a  snow-storm  and  the  village 
was  wrapped  in  a  heavy  mantle  of  snow.  The 
aged  pastor  who  had  spent  his  life  ministering 


THE  REWARD  OF  SERVICE         231 

to  the  little  flock,  looking  out  upon  the  snow- 
wrapped  houses,  thought  it  would  be  pleasant 
to  walk  through  the  village  street,  that  passing, 
he  might  look  in  at  the  windows  illumined, 
after  the  pretty  German  custom,  with  the 
Christmas  candles,  and  see  the  happiness  in 
the  homes  of  his  people  as  they  gathered  about 
their  Christmas  trees.  It  so  happened  that  as 
the  village  children,  from  time  to  time  opening 
the  door,  peered  into  the  darkness  to  see  if  per- 
chance the  Christ  should  come  that  night,  they 
discovered  the  figure  moving  slowly  down  the 
street.  The  cry  went  up :  **  The  Christ  is 
come!"  and  the  eager  parents  followed  the 
children  out  into  the  snow.  The  figure  stopped, 
and  looking  into  his  face,  they  exclaimed  :  "  It 
is  only  the  pastor  I  "  Then  suddenly  some  one 
said:  ''Why,  the  Christ  has  come.  This  is 
what  it  means."  And  all  saw,  as  it  were,  for 
the  first  time,  the  Christ  shining  in  the  eyes  so 
full  of  love  for  them  all,  and  in  the  gentle 
countenance  which  had  dwelt  among  them 
through  all  the  years. 

This  is  the  only  vision  of  Christ  which  is 
given  His  people  to-day.  But  by  the  grace  of 
God  it  is  given  everywhere  wherever  faithful 
servants  of  Christ  are  living  His  life,  and  speak- 
ing His  words,  and  are  moved  by  His  spirit. 
Year  by  year  they  have  been  growing  into  His 


232         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

likeness,  and  year  by  year  they  are  witnessing 
to  His  presence  to  the  world  about  them.  So 
the  kingdom  is  coming ;  so  the  will  of  God 
is  doing ;  and  so  the  Lord's  promise  is  prepar- 
ing for  its  final  fulfillment  when  we  all  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is,  and  be  like  Him. 


XIX 
JONAH 

MANY  people  know  the  Book  of  Jonah 
only  as  a  story  about  a  whale.  In 
fact,  it  is  one  of  the  anticipations  in 
the  Old  Testament  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  As 
with  many  other  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
its  author  is  not  declared.  Like  the  Books  of 
Ruth  and  Job  and  perhaps  Esther,  it  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  prophetic  tale.  It  has  not  the  marks 
of  a  history,  as  its  references  are  vague.  No 
name  is  given  of  the  king  of  Nineveh,  and 
Nineveh  is  only  described  as  a  great  city  of  fab- 
ulous size.  Nineveh  furnishes  simply  the  set- 
ting of  the  picture.  From  various  literary  fea- 
tures of  the  Book,  scholars  generally  agree  that 
it  belongs  to  the  period  after  the  return  from 
the  Exile. 

It  was  the  time  of  the  revival  of  Judaism. 
The  remnant  of  the  Jews  who  were  delivered  by 
Cyrus  had  returned  to  their  native  land  and 
found  themselves  at  once  beset  with  difficulties. 
The  land  had  been  peopled  with  many  races, — 
with  the  odds  and  ends  of  the  various  countries 

^33 


234        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

which  had  been  conquered  by  the  Babylonians. 
This  Uttle  group  of  exiles  was  at  once  an  ob- 
ject of  suspicion  and  hostility  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  land.  Any  one  reading  the  story  in  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  will  find  full  details  of  their  hos- 
tility and  of  the  plight  in  which  the  returning 
captives  found  themselves  and  the  strenuous- 
ness  of  the  efforts  which,  under  their  vigorous 
leaders,  they  put  forth  to  reestablish  themselves 
in  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

They  naturally  emphasized  everything  that 
pertained  to  their  religion  and  to  their  former 
national  life.  They  began  at  once  to  rebuild  the 
temple,  and  they  enriched  and  amplified  and 
made  more  rigorous,  its  ritual.  They  gave  new 
emphasis  to  the  priesthood,  and  new  dignity  to 
all  who  were  connected  with  their  formal  worship. 
They  emphasized  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  mak- 
ing it  as  severe  as  possible,  and  enforcing  its 
obligations  on  their  neighbours,  as  they  applied 
it  also  to  themselves.  They  enjoined  the  putting 
away  at  once  of  all  the  Gentile  wives  who  might 
be  among  them,  no  matter  how  cruel  it  might 
prove  to  homes  and  children.  The  period  soon 
became  one  of  great  intellectual  activity.  The 
Jews  were  already  beginning  to  scatter  to  other 
lands  and  inaugurating  that  system  of  trade  in 
which  they  have  been  since  everywhere  distin- 
guished.    Only  recently  the  remains  of  a  temple 


JONAH  235 

which  they  built  far  away  on  an  island  in  the 
Nile  have  been  exhumed,  and  the  records  have 
been  discovered  of  the  strength  of  their  position 
and  of  their  worship,  and  the  amplifying  and 
the  intensifying  of  their  ritual  in  that  far-away 
land.  Their  intellectual  life  blossomed  and  be- 
came fruitful  as  the  result  of  their  contact  with 
the  great  nations,  and  the  way  was  opened  for 
their  part  in  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  cen- 
turies immediately  preceding  the  coming  of 
Christ.  All  these  are  indications  of  the  narrow- 
ness and  exclusiveness  of  their  spirit  as  they 
began  to  find  themselves  reestablished  by  the 
building  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  the  favour 
of  the  government  in  far-away  Babylon.  The 
Jewish  spirit,  as  it  has  since  been  known,  and 
which  has  everywhere  been  so  marked  as  char- 
acteristic of  their  race,  found  then,  if  not  its 
birth,  its  renascence.  Their  hostility  to  other 
people,  who  were  always  henceforth  to  them  as 
dogs,  became  confirmed.  All  that  the  prophets 
had  been  saying  of  the  revelation  of  God  to 
the  world  through  Israel  was  now  fast  being 
narrowed  in  the  thought  that  it  was  to  be 
brought  about  by  the  dominion  of  Israel  over 
all.  Great  as  are  the  visions  of  the  great  proph- 
ets of  the  preceding  period,  of  the  day  when 
the  islands  of  the  sea  and  the  kings  of  the  earth 
shall  bring  their  tribute  to  the  Messiah  of  Israel, 


236         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

and  beneficent  as  are  the  prophecies  of  His  com- 
ing reign,  the  Jews  on  their  return  were  Httle 
prepared  to  understand  them,  and  were  by  force 
of  their  circumstances  intensified,  and  rapidly 
becoming  more  and  more  intensified,  in  the 
narrowness  of  their  national  life  and  of  their 
religious  and  intellectual  comprehension. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  an  un- 
known preacher  and  poet  attained,  in  some  way, 
to  a  larger  view.  There  was  given  to  him  a 
revelation  of  the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  scope 
of  the  Gospel  of  God,  of  which  his  country- 
men had  little  or  no  comprehension. 

The  problem  set  before  him  was  to  present 
the  new  truth  in  a  form  that  would  challenge 
attention  and  would  be  preserved  in  the 
thought  and  religious  literature  of  his  people. 
He  chose  a  form  which  was  familiar  in  their  ex- 
perience. His  message  was  in  unison  with  that 
of  the  great  prophets  of  the  exile,  notably  of  the 
second  half  of  Isaiah.  His  phraseology  is  sim- 
ilar to  theirs,  and  he  uses  something  of  the 
same  imagery.  There  was  probably  some  his- 
toric basis  for  his  tale,  as  there  was  for  the  Book 
of  Ruth,  but  we  are  not  able  to  identify  it ;  and 
it  is  unimportant  in  itself,  as  his  own  story  is  the 
important  thing,  and  the  method  by  which  he 
presents  it  is  only  secondary. 

He  tells  us  then  the  tale  of  the  Jewish  prophet 


JONAH  237 

who,  knowing  himself  as  a  prophet,  and  having 
been  prepared  for  such  use  as  God  had  made 
of  him  hitherto,  is  now  summoned  to  a  larger 
function,  and  is  to  prove  himself  altogether  un- 
ready. A  message  is  given  to  him  so  unparal- 
leled in  his  experience,  so  inharmonious  at  once 
with  the  spirit  of  his  people  and  with  his  sur- 
roundings, so  opposed  to  what  appears  to  be 
the  purpose  of  God  with  the  seed  of  Jacob,  that 
its  reception  among  them  at  once  awakens 
doubts  as  to  its  validity,  if  not  as  to  its  authen- 
ticity. He  can  hardly  believe  that  the  God  of 
Israel  summons  him,  His  prophet,  to  be  the 
carrier  of  such  a  message  to  the  heathen.  His 
doubts  quickly  become  convictions,  and  his  con- 
victions drive  him  to  prompt  action.  He  turns 
at  once  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  hastens 
to  the  seacoast  at  Joppa.  The  God  of  Israel 
had  never  had  much  to  do  with  the  sea.  Per- 
haps it  was  an  instinctive  recognition  of  this 
fact  and  the  partial  surrender  to  the  conceptions 
of  the  nations  about  him  that  led  him  to  think 
that  if  he  could  get  out  of  his  native  land  and 
on  the  sea,  Jehovah  would  not  follow  him  with 
the  same  strenuous  command.  When  he  found 
a  ship  ready  to  sail  to  Tarshish,  the  most  remote 
country,  at  the  very  ends  of  the  earth,  he  was 
confirmed  in  his  thought.  We  can  hear  him 
exclaim,  "  How  providential ! "    as  he  hastens 


238        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

aboard.  He  illustrates  at  once  what  is  so  often 
true  in  the  Christian's  experience.  God  opens 
doors  for  us  to  test  us,  when  He  intends  that  we 
shall  by  no  means  enter  them. 

The  story  hastens  to  tell  us  how  God  pre- 
pared him  for  the  work  that  he  was  called  to 
do.  A  storm  arises,  the  prophet  is  speedily 
cast  into  the  sea,  and  as  speedily  brought  back 
again  by  the  God  whom  he  worships  but  dis- 
obeys, to  the  place  from  which  he  started.  The 
reference  to  the  Leviathan  that  was  the  instru- 
ment of  his  return  is  a  figure  that  occurs  in 
Jeremiah,  and  is  wholly  incidental  to  the  pur- 
pose of  the  tale.  It  is  merely  the  stage  ma- 
chinery of  the  drama.  The  prophet  must  be  got 
back  to  land.  The  prophet  gives  testimony 
that  all  the  time  his  heart  was  right.  He  was 
a  real  servant  and  lover  of  Jehovah,  but  he  had 
yielded  to  a  passing  temptation  which  had 
carried  him  away  by  its  sudden  violent  onrush, 
and  the  goodness  of  God  had  now  brought  him 
back  in  spite  of  himself.  So,  the  tale  at  this 
point  is  interrupted  by  the  insertion  of  a  song  of 
praise  to  God,  made  up  of  snatches  of  psalmody 
from  the  Hymn  Book  of  Israel, — just  such  bits 
of  song  as  would  be  used  by  any  devout  Israel- 
ite brought  up  in  the  familiar  use  of  the  hymns 
of  his  people. 

When  the  prophet  found  himself  again  in  his 


JONAH  239 

own  country,  he  comes  to  himself  and  waits  and 
desires  to  know  what  God  would  have  him  do. 
The  former  command  is  repeated  in  identical 
words.  It  is  God's  custom  when  He  gives  a 
servant  a  command  to  a  definite  duty,  and  the 
servant  disobeys,  and,  by  the  goodness  of  his 
God  after  his  fall  and  repentance,  is  brought 
back  to  himself  and  to  readiness  to  obey,  that 
the  old  command  is  invariably  repeated.  It  is 
the  one  condition  upon  which  the  Christian  can 
hope  to  make  progress  in  his  spiritual  life  as  in 
his  Christian  service.  It  is  the  crux  of  his  faith. 
The  thing  which  he  refused  to  do,  he  must  do, 
if  he  is  to  know  himself  and  to  win  either 
strength  or  peace  for  the  future.  So  we  have 
in  the  story  the  command  that  he  arise  and  go 
to  Nineveh,  *'  that  great  city,"  with  the  message 
of  warning.  This  time  he  obeys.  The  message 
put  on  the  prophet's  lips  is  a  very  short  one. 
Nineveh  is  to  be  warned  of  a  coming  judgment. 
In  forty  days  it  shall  be  destroyed.  A  moment's 
consideration  of  the  message  will  show  how 
different  it  is  in  form  and  substance  from  the 
words  of  the  prophets  of  Israel.  The  message 
in  itself  in  this  instance  is  of  far  less  importance 
than  the  messenger,  or  than  the  fact  that  the 
God  of  Israel  sends  him  to  the  heathen.  That 
was  the  wonderful  truth  that  was  to  be  taught. 
His  fellow  countrymen  were  to  have  their  eyes 


240         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

opened  to  the  character  of  God  and  the  purpose 
of  God,  for  which  they  were  Uttle  prepared.  He 
is  a  God  of  the  Gentiles  as  well  as  of  Israel. 
He  was  preparing  to  save  to  the  uttermost 
them  that  would  come  to  Him  by  the  Messiah 
of  Israel.  The  days  were  hastening  on  to  the 
time  when  that  Messiah  was  to  appear,  and 
something  must  be  done  to  prepare,  if  possible, 
both  the  Lord's  people  and  the  world  for  His 
message.  That  message  was  to  be  summed  up 
in  the  single  sentence,  ''  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish  but 
have  eternal  life."  Simple  as  this  message 
is  and  familiar  as  it  is  to  us  to-day,  it  was  at  the 
beginning  a  revelation  so  new,  so  strange,  so 
difficult  of  acceptance  that,  not  the  heathen  only, 
but  Israel  itself  would  long  reject  it.  We  see 
the  preliminary  step  in  introducing  it, — the  day- 
star  as  it  might  be  called,  anticipating  the  ris- 
ing of  the  sun.  Hence  the  remarkable  char- 
acter of  this  little  book.  The  author  is  not  care- 
ful to  give  his  name  or  any  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  wonderful  truth  was  revealed 
to  him.  He  was  content  to  concentrate  his 
strength  upon  presenting  it  in  such  form  as  will 
attract  attention  and  will  be  remembered.  So, 
he  tells  us  of  the  prophet  himself  awed  and 
humbled,  journeying   across  the  desert  to  the 


JONAH  241 

exceeding  great  city.  Arriving,  he  enters  its 
gates  and  delivers  at  once  his  message.  He 
has  hardly  entered  than  the  city  begins  to  re- 
spond. The  people,  their  leaders,  the  king 
himself,  gather  to  meet  him.  Their  hearts  are 
strangely  opened  to  the  truth.  The  God  of 
Israel,  whom  they  have  known  so  imperfectly, 
but  who  is  the  one  God  in  the  heart  of  His  am- 
bassador, has  sent  His  servant  to  them.  They 
are  awed  by  it  and  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes, 
while  the  king  orders  a  fast.  It  is  a  thrilling 
suggestion  of  what  may  be  expected  in  God's 
good  time  in  the  heathen  world.  It  is  a  vision 
given  to  cheer  the  heart  of  every  foreign  mis- 
sionary, every  lover  of  his  kind. 

Here  the  Judaism  of  the  prophet  breaks  out 
and  the  narrow  selfishness  more  or  less  in  us  all. 
It  is  just  what  he  feared.  Israel  is  not  going  to 
retain  her  distinction  among  the  nations.  The 
greatest  city  in  the  world  is  seen  accepting  the 
God  of  Israel.  What  is  to  become  then  of  the 
distinction  of  Israel  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of 
God's  covenant  with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and 
Jacob  ?  How  can  this  prophet  return  to  Jeru- 
salem with  the  tale  of  what  he  has  seen  ?  He 
stops  his  progress  ;  he  backs  out  of  the  city  and 
seats  himself  on  an  adjoining  hill,  waiting  to 
see  what  it  all  means.  Again  the  message  of 
God  comes  to  him  in  the  picture  of  the  plant 


242         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

under  whose  shadow  he  finds  grateful  protec- 
tion from  the  beating  sun.  A  worm  attacks  it 
and  it  withers.  He  cries  out  in  protest,  and  a 
voice  comes  to  him  :  "  Shall  He  have  concern 
for  a  plant,  and  God  be  indifferent  to  the  ex- 
tremities of  men.  His  children?" 

The  tale  abruptly  stops  as  if  the  narrator  felt 
himself  incompetent  to  make  a  fitting  close,  or 
in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  he  had  no  expe- 
rience of  what  the  effect  of  such  a  revelation 
would  be  upon  a  prophet  or,  indeed,  any  Israel- 
ite. It  required  too  great  a  stretch  of  the  imag- 
ination. The  idea  of  such  a  message  and  such 
a  revelation  was  too  new  and  too  incongruous 
for  him  to  anticipate  its  effect.  That  must  be 
left  to  be  determined  by  the  actual  experience. 
So,  with  wonderful  self-control,  he  adds  no  epi- 
logue, he  leaves  his  story  to  tell  itself  and  it  has 
stood  from  that  day  one  of  the  most  wonderful 
visions  found  in  the  Old  Testament.  Compre- 
hension of  the  character  and  the  purpose  of 
God  so  far  in  advance  of  the  time,  so  splendidly 
anticipatory  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  that  it  chal- 
lenges our  wonder  and  admiration  to-day.  It 
is  as  powerful  a  summons  to  us  as  it  was  to  the 
Jews.  It  warns  us  against  the  danger  of  our 
own  narrowness,  our  sectarianism,  our  reverence 
for  our  traditions  and  our  inherited  views.  We 
also,  like  those  Jews,  are  apt  to  pride  ourselves 


JONAH  243 

upon  so  much  of  the  truth  as  we  apprehend. 
We,  no  less  than  they,  are  disposed  to  think 
that  the  opinions  we  hold  are  important  to  the 
world  in  the  measure  that  they  are  important  to 
our  own  reputation.  We  find  it  hard  to  give 
up  our  peculiar  inheritance  or  our  distinctive 
doctrines  lest  in  doing  so  we  are  merged  in  the 
common  faith  even  of  our  neighbours,  though 
that  faith  be,  as  truly  as  our  own  faith,  in  the  one 
Lord.  We,  as  well  as  they,  are  tempted  con- 
tinually to  prescribe  the  methods  by  which  God 
shall  do  His  work  with  others.  We  look  to  see 
their  habits  corrected  or  their  errors  refuted,  or 
their  hearts  won,  or  their  lives  made  new  in 
ways  which  we  would  prescribe  or  with  which 
we  may  be  familiar.  We  forget  as  readily  as 
they  do  that  God's  ways  are  not  as  our  ways, 
nor  His  thoughts  as  our  thoughts.  We  need 
continually  to  be  taught  that  His  mercy  never 
fails,  His  loving  kindnesses  are  inexhaustible. 
The  drunkard  in  our  street,  and  the  profligate, 
and  the  criminal,  are  no  more  truly  beyond  the 
scope  of  the  redemption  purchased  for  sinful 
men  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  than  are  the 
heathen,  or  than  we  were  ourselves.  It  is  the 
old  truth  that  we  all  are  so  slow  to  believe,  and 
the  ancient  message  comes  to  us  with  its  sharp 
point  as  it  did  to  the  men  of  the  day  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah — that  not  only  is  God  able  to 


244:         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

save  to  the  uttermost,  but  that  all  men  are 
brethren,  and  all  are  alike  in  need  of  the  com- 
mon redemption.  The  differences  among  us 
are  so  slight,  so  largely  limited  to  externals,  that 
in  view  of  the  universal  need  of  pardon  and  of 
help  to  live  the  new  life,  we  are  alike  sinners 
before  God.  **  There  is  none  that  doeth  right- 
eousness, no,  not  one."  We  can  hear  again 
on  the  lips  of  this  old  teacher,  our  Lord's  words, 
**  Suffer  the  litde  children  and  forbid  them  not 
to  come  unto  Me,"  as  we  receive  anew  His  last 
command,  ''  Go  ye  into  all  the  world : "  and 
*'  Make  disciples  of  all  the  nations." 

This  little  book,  so  wonderfully  preserved 
through  the  long  centuries,  so  little  understood, 
and  so  incessantly  perverted  by  the  ridicule  of 
the  thoughtless,  speaks  to  us  with  the  same 
voice  with  which  the  Saviour  speaks,  and  sum- 
mons us  with  the  same  openness  of  heart  to 
the  message  of  the  Divine  love,  and  the  same 
promptness  of  obedience  in  obeying  it,  and  the 
same  recognition  of  a  true  brotherhood  as  that 
which  we  are  called  to  manifest  as  our  re- 
sponse to  Him. 


XX 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK 

"  Heal  the  sxokr —Matthew  lo  :  8. 

THERE  is  no  question  but  that  Jesus 
healed  the  sick.  There  is  no  question 
also  that  His  disciples  did  the  same, 
and  that  the  early  Church  followed  in  their 
steps  and,  at  least  for  a  time,  understood  them- 
selves to  be  endowed  with  the  power  of  similar 
healing.  But  it  is  also  equally  true  that  Jesus 
raised  the  dead,  and  that  He  gave  the  power 
and  the  command  to  His  disciples  to  do  the 
same.  His  words  are  :  **  Heal  the  sick,  raise 
the  dead,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  demons : 
freely  ye  receive,  freely  give."  To  what  extent 
the  early  Church  understood  this  command  and 
power  as  passing  over  to  them  is  not  clear,  but 
on  one  occasion,  at  least,  in  the  matter  of  the 
young  man  Eutychus,  who,  when  Paul  was 
preaching  at  Troas,  as  narrated  in  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  Acts,  fell  from  a  window  and  was 
taken  up  dead,  Paul  exercised  this  power,  and 
restored  him  to  life.  But  this  latter  power  dis- 
appeared quickly,  and  was  henceforth  never 
claimed. 

245 


246         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Much  misunderstanding  has  arisen  as  to  this 
whole  series  of  incidents.  Many  have  felt 
forced  to  try  to  explain  them  away  on  the 
ground  that  in  the  limited  knowledge  of  the 
men  of  that  day  and  of  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  story  who  were  not  trained  in  weigh- 
ing evidence,  much  was  accepted  as  miraculous 
which  was  not  so,  but  was  simply  the  result  of 
natural  though  possibly  little  known  forces.  As 
a  consequence,  they  say,  the  story  of  Jesus  and 
the  early  Church  would  be  well  freed  from  the 
whole  series  of  miraculous  recountings.  In  this 
way  both  Christianity  and  the  Gospels  would 
experience  an  unloading  of  extraneous  matter 
which  not  only  serves  as  an  insuperable  block 
in  the  way  of  the  faith  of  many,  but  is  an  en- 
tirely unnecessary  befogging  of  the  simple  gos- 
pel story. 

Much  labour  has  been  spent  upon  this  state- 
ment of  the  case  ;  on  the  one  hand  striving  to 
prove  that  miracles  are  in  their  nature  impos- 
sible, and  that  all  pretended  miracles,  whether 
in  modern  or  in  ancient  times,  are  either  a  mis- 
interpretation of  perfectly  natural  phenomena, 
or  are  the  result  of  more  or  less  deliberate  im- 
posture. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  argued  that  while 
miracles  may  not  be  events  of  a  kind  to  be  ex- 
pected to-day,  they  are  not  in  their  nature  im- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      247 

possible,  and  whether  or  not  they  occur  now  or 
have  occurred  in  the  past  is  purely  a  matter  of 
testimony  and  of  fact. 

But  this,  I  venture  to  think,  is  not  the  way 
with  which  the  subject  of  the  New  Testament 
miracles  is  properly  to  be  dealt.  To  those  who 
accept  the  New  Testament  story,  it  is  the  record 
of  a  special  revelation  which  at  a  particular  time 
and  under  particular  circumstances,  God  con- 
descended to  give  to  the  world.  Miracles  are 
presented  as  a  part  of  the  revelation.  They  are 
not  merely  concomitants,  or  attestations  of  its 
reality,  but  are  a  part  of  the  revelation  itself. 
If  any  revelation  of  God  to  men  is  possible,  then 
miracles  are  possible,  that  is,  we  have  no  such 
knowledge  either  of  the  Divine  nature  and  the 
conditions  of  existence  in  the  unseen  world  on 
the  one  hand,  or  of  the  Divine  method  of  work- 
ing in  the  visible  world  about  us  and  the  real 
nature  and  extent  of  what  we  know  as  the 
forces  of  nature,  on  the  other  hand,  as  will  en- 
able us  to  say  what  is  and  what  is  not  possible. 

The  question  of  miracles,  therefore,  crowds  us 
back  at  once  upon  the  question  of  revelation, 
and  it  takes  this  form.  The  men  who  believe 
that  all  things  came  into  existence  by  the  will 
and  as  the  act  of  a  Supreme  Being  who  is  the 
Maker  and  Preserver  of  all  and  who  we  know 
as  God,  believe  that  that  Divine  Being  disclosed 


248        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

Himself  when  He  called  our  visible  universe 
into  existence  and  established  the  lines  of  its 
unfolding  and  development.  If  He  did  so 
much,  may  He  not  be  expected  to  do  more  ? 
And  if  the  record  of  the  rocks  and  of  the  forests 
and  of  animal  life  all  tell  of  Him,  of  His  thoughts 
and  plans  and  purposes,  as  also  of  His  abiding 
presence  and  of  His  power  as  the  fountain  and 
source  of  their  existence,  may  we  not  expect 
that  in  the  life  of  man  in  his  superior  realms, 
there  will  be  such  manifestations  of  God  as  may 
prove  congenial  or  necessary  ]^in  the  unfolding 
of  God's  purpose  with  him  ?  Indeed  the  long 
story  of  the  evolution  of  the  planet,  and  of  the 
forms  of  existence  that  are  found  upon  it,  gives 
evidence  with  no  little  frequency  of  the  occur- 
rence of  events  of  the  most  tremendous  signifi- 
cance both  as  cataclysms  and  as  the  introduc- 
tion of  new  forms  of  existence  which  may  rea- 
sonably be  regarded  as  such  unanticipated  but 
entirely  probable  manifestations  of  God.  In- 
deed, going  back  of  this  to  the  question  of  mat- 
ter itself,  we  are  discovering  to-day  that  it  is  no 
such  simple  thing  as  it  has  been  regarded,  but 
in  the  last  analysis,  or  at  least  in  the  form  as 
near  to  what  may  be  called  the  last  analysis  as 
the  present  state  of  science  permits,  matter  itself 
is  perceived  as  a  substance  so  closely  akin  to 
what  we  have  hitherto  understood  as  spirit  that 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      249 

the  line  of  partition  or  distinction  is  to  the  last 
degree  shadowy,  and  that  we  are  very  far  from 
being  able  to  say  what  is  possible  even  within 
what  we  are  ready  to  regard  as  the  laws  of 
Nature,  not  to  say  what  is  possible  viewing  its 
relation  to  that  world  about  us  of  which  we  as 
yet  know  little  or  nothing. 

Therefore,  when  we  come  to  the  Incarnation 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  revelation  of  God  that 
is  found  in  Him,  it  becomes  at  once  a  matter  of 
the  spiritual  life  and  of  the  Christian  faith.  The 
question  forced  upon  every  man  is,  whether  or 
not  he  will  believe  that  God  is  a  present  exist- 
ence, to  whom  he  owes  personal  allegiance  and 
who,  as  the  Heavenly  Father,  has  such  personal 
love  and  care  for  him  that  he  owes  to  Him  a 
life  and  a  service  as  of  a  son  to  a  Divine  Father. 

When  a  man  opens  his  heart  to  this  truth, 
Jesus  Christ  presents  Himself  as  at  once  the 
messenger  and  the  revelation  of  that  Heavenly 
Father.  He  claims  to  come  from  Him,  to  speak 
His  words  and  to  do  His  will.  He  reveals  in 
Himself  a  character  which  may  well  be  ac- 
cepted as  divine,  so  beautiful  is  it,  and  so 
compelling  in  its  sweet  perfection.  When  He 
proceeds  to  exercise  a  power  beyond  that  of 
men,  it  is  seen  at  once  to  be  harmonious  with 
His  character.  It  corresponds  with  both  His 
life  and  His  message  in  that  it  works  for  the 


250         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

blessing  of  men.  It  is  so  wholly  congruous 
that  the  men  of  His  time  who  gathered  close 
about  Him  and  who  observed  Him  most  care- 
fully, whether  with  friendly  or  hostile  eyes, 
could  find  no  fault  in  Him.  They  did  not  go 
back  of  His  claim  to  be  what  He  was. 

That  claim  granted,  all  was  harmonious. 
The  miracles  at  once  fall  into  place,  not  simply 
as  what  was  to  be  expected,  but  as  that  which 
when  it  occurred,  was  recognized  of  all  to  be 
germane  to  Himself.  The  accounts  of  Him 
which  various  ones  undertook  to  write  narrate 
their  occurrence  as  simply  and  ingenuously  as 
they  narrated  His  comings  and  goings.  In- 
deed, the  miracles,  as  we  term  them,  are,  if  not 
of  the  very  woof,  woven  into  the  very  web  of 
the  story  so  thoroughly  that  they  cannot  be 
taken  out  without  destroying  the  whole.  The 
narratives  may  properly  be  subjected  to  scrutiny 
as  to  their  authenticity  and  genuineness,  as  to 
the  age  in  which  they  were  written,  and  their 
forms  of  speech,  but  when  all  this  has  been 
done,  it  is  still  found  that  the  miracles  are  as 
truly  a  part  of  the  narrative  as  is  any  other  sec- 
tion, and,  in  the  end,  will  be  accepted  or  re- 
jected simply  according  as  men  believe  that 
the  story  is  the  record  of  the  Divine  revelation, 
or  is  not. 

This  being  the  case,  we  are  prepared  at  once 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      251 

to  believe  that  miracles  in  any  similar  sense  do 
not  occur  to-day,  because  we  have  no  new  reve- 
lation. God  is  in  men,  manifesting  Himself  to 
the  individual  heart,  and  we  make  much  in 
these  days  of  what  we  call  the  immanence  of 
God  in  His  world.  But  no  acceptance  of  these 
terms  is  to  be  understood  by  thoughtful  men  as 
implying  that  either  the  Incarnation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  or  the  revelation  which,  in  Him  and  at 
that  time,  God  gave  of  Himself  to  men  has  been 
repeated,  or  is  being  repeated  to-day.  It  was 
unique  and  absolutely  distinct.  To  the  Chris- 
tian it  stands  as  in  itself  sufficient  for  the  Divine 
purpose  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  and  of 
suffering  and  sinful  men.  The  Old  Testament 
is  the  story  of  a  preparation  for  this  that  ran 
through  many  centuries  of  faith, — the  world's 
history  and  Jewish  history.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  that  account  of  it  which  by  the  grace  of 
God,  the  Spirit  of  God  has  guided  His  Church 
first  in  making  and  then  in'  accepting  as  final 
and  sufficient. 

The  Church,  therefore,  does  not  now  look  for 
miracles  because  it  does  not  look  for  a  new 
revelation.  It  does  not  venture  to  say  whether 
miracles  are  possible  or  not,  but  when  any  man 
claims  to  have  discovered  a  miracle  or,  still 
more,  to  be  able  to  work  a  miracle,  he  is  put  at 
once  to  the  test  of  whether  or  not  he  has  re- 


252         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ceived  or  found  a  new  revelation.  This  fact 
has  continually  been  recognized  by  all  sorts  of 
impostors  or  founders  of  a  new  faith,  whether 
Mohammed,  or  Joseph  Smith,  or  Mrs.  Eddy, 
who  have  at  the  outset  set  forth  their  *'  revela- 
tion '^  as  their  credentials.  Because,  having  the 
Bible  in  its  hand,  the  Christian  Church  does  not 
find  any  new  claimant  offering  a  new  message 
or  a  pseudo  revelation,  which,  judged  by  the 
standard  of  the  New  Testament,  seems  worthy 
of  its  claims,  it  has  persistently  refused  to  accept 
any  and  all  of  them.  It  does  not  believe  either 
in  their  revelation  or  in  their  asserted  miracu- 
lous or  even  exceptional  powers. 

When,  therefore,  we  come  to  the  question  of 
whether  the  Church  stands  in  any  relation  to 
the  condition  of  the  physical  health  of  the  indi- 
vidual, or  whether  it  has  any  cause  to  deal  with 
the  question  of  bodily  health,  the  answer  is  not 
to  be  found  either  in  the  practices  of  Jesus  or 
in  His  specific  command  to  His  disciples.  That 
all  belongs  to  a  time  and  to  circumstances  far 
removed.  The  question  is  to  be  discussed  and 
settled  on  entirely  different  grounds. 

It  is  to  be  noted  at  the  outset  that  there  is 
no  essential  connection  between  religion  and 
health.  There  is  a  connection,  but  that  it  is  an 
essential  one,  or  that  the  one  becomes  the 
measure   and   test   of   the   other,   is   not   true. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      253 

There  is  no  slightest  suggestion,  for  example, 
that  the  Lazarus  of  Bethany  whom  **  Jesus 
loved,''  and  to  raise  whom  from  the  dead.  He 
went  back  into  the  midst  of  His  enemies,  ex- 
posing Himself  to  the  arrest  which  resulted  in 
His  crucifixion,  was  a  peculiarly  spiritual  man. 
Indeed,  if  his  bodily  condition  is  any  evidence 
at  all,  the  fact  that  he  sickened  and  died  would 
indicate  the  exact  opposite.  Jesus  loved  him, 
we  may  be  sure,  not  because  of  his  physical 
condition,  whatever  it  was,  but  for  something 
far  deeper  and  more  permanent  and  more  truly 
a  part  of  himself. 

Paul's  full  statement  on  this  subject  is  so 
conclusive  that  it  has  long  been  accepted  as 
the  authoritative  Christian  teaching.  He  had  an 
affliction  so  serious  that  he  called  it  his  **  thorn 
in  the  flesh,"  "  an  emissary  of  Satan,"  and  he 
prayed  most  earnestly,  as  he  says,  on  three 
distinct  occasions,  that  he  might  be  delivered 
from  it.  But  when  it  was  made  evident  to  him 
that  it  rested  upon  him  in  accordance  with  the 
will  of  God,  actually  *'  given  "  by  God,  and  that 
it  was  therefore  to  be  an  instrument  of  God  in 
revealing  both  the  Divine  grace  and  the  Divine 
power,  we  find  him  at  once  glorying  in  his 
sickness  and  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  he 
"would  take  pleasure  in  weaknesses,  in  in- 
juries, in   necessities,  in   persecutions,   in   dis- 


254         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

tresses,  for  Christ's  sake,"  for  he  had  now 
learned  that  God's  power  is  ''made  perfect" 
in  our  weaknesses,  and  that  in  fact,  '*  when  we 
are  weak,  then,"  in  some  large  true  sense,  "  we 
are  strong." 

In  other  words,  bodily  pain  and  ill  health 
may  be  just  as  truly  a  special  minister  of  bless- 
ing to  the  sufferer  as  the  other  ills  and  haps  of 
our  most  uncertain  and  most  truly  disciplinary 
earthly  life.  There  is  no  more  reason  for  think- 
ing that  a  man  is  more  saintly  because  he  has 
exuberant  health,  than  there  is  because  he  has 
abundant  riches  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
he  is  rejected  of  God,  or  forsaken,  or  gone 
astray  in  his  personal  religious  life  because  he 
is  below  tone  physically  or  experiences  some 
physical  ailment,  than  if  he  has  failed  in  busi- 
ness or  been  betrayed  and  persecuted  by  those 
whom  he  thought  his  friends. 

But  when  this  is  said,  it  is  to  be  recognized 
that  while  there  is  no  essential  connection  be- 
tween religion  and  health,  there  is  what  we 
may  call  a  generic  connection,  as  between 
happiness  and  health.  Jesus  brought  life 
abundant.  It  is  natural  that  the  body  should 
share  it.  As  Paul  says  in  the  eighth  of 
Romans :  '*  He  that  raised  up  Christ  Jesus 
from  the  dead  shall  give  life  also  to  your 
mortal  bodies  through  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth 


,  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      255 

in  you."  In  the  same  chapter  he  speaks  also 
of  believers  as,  notwithstanding  the  burdens 
and  troubles  of  life,  looking  forward  for  '*  the 
redemption  of  the  body."  In  the  fifth  chapter 
of  his  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  he  prays 
that  **the  spirit  and  soul  and  body"  of  his 
hearers  "  may  be  preserved  entirely  and  with- 
out blame "  ;  that  is,  he  recognized  that  the 
immediate  and  inevitable  outcome  of  giving 
one's  self  to  Christ  is  not  only  peace  in  the 
heart  and  joy  in  believing,  but  also  a  certain 
quickening  and  refreshing  of  the  body,  which 
will  appear  in  a  man's  physical  condition.  It  is 
not  a  necessary  fact  and  not  by  any  means  one 
that  furnishes  a  measure  of  spiritual  life,  but  it 
is  a  natural  and  obvious  fact,  and  the  result  of 
the  generic  relationship  between  the  mind  and 
the  body.  Therefore,  when  the  question  of  the 
function  or  the  duty  of  the  Church  is  raised, 
we  recognize  at  once  that  there  is  a  healing 
and  a  preserving  of  the  body  made  possible 
through  faith,  and  that  it  is  entirely  proper 
that  it  should  be  connected  with  religion.  It 
is  so  clearly  and  frequently  a  statement  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  is  so  abundantly  realized  in 
Christian  experience  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  labour  the  question.  It  may  be  expected  ; 
and  these  things  at  once  are  to  be  said  about 
it: 


256         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

First:  This  healing  of  the  body  will  be 
found  to  lie  within  the  range  of  what  may 
properly  be  called  the  laws  of  health,  that  is, 
it  will  be  based  on  knowledge  and  not  on  ig- 
norance ;  it  will  be  secured  by  the  use  of  ap- 
propriate means  ;  and  it  will  be  of  a  kind  that 
can  be  repeated.  Once  stripped  of  all  as- 
sociation with  miracles,  everybody  is  ready  to 
recognize  the  necessity  of  using  our  intelligence 
in  securing  the  best  and  most  accurate  infor- 
mation as  to  the  invalid's  real  condition,  and 
of  then  proceeding  to  use  the  most  effective 
remedial  measures  which  are  within  reach.  To 
do  anything  else  is  as  unworthy  of  a  Chris- 
tian faith  as  it  would  be  unworthy  of  a  Chris- 
tian intelligence  and  of  good  sense. 

God's  great  gift  to  us  as  human  beings  is 
our  reason,  and  we  are  in  every  relation  of  life 
bound  to  use  it  in  acquiring  knowledge  and 
in  working  out  what  we  believe  to  be  God's 
purpose  in  us.  There  is  nothing  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  or  in  the  Word  of  God,  to  imply 
that  the  care  of  our  health  comes  under  any 
other  rule,  or  is  fixed  by  any  other  conditions. 
And  because  this  is  so,  when  one  has  found 
that  remedy  or  treatment  which  restores  the 
health,  it  may  be  expected  to  do  the  same 
again  in  similar  cases.  There  is  every  induce- 
ment, therefore,  for  the  use  of  the  trained  phy- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      257 

sician  and  of  every  appliance  available  in  ad- 
vanced medical  practice,  and  for  bringing  these 
things  within  the  reach  of  the  suffering,  as  the 
Christian  Church  has  from  the  beginning  striven 
to  do.  It  is  working  directly  in  the  line  of  its 
character  as  an  agency  for  making  Jesus  Christ 
known  and  establishing  His  kingdom  when  it 
establishes  hospitals  and  gives  high  honour  to 
the  educated  physician. 

Second  :  Among  these  laws  of  health  are  cer- 
tain ones  which  may  be  called  laws  of  the  spirit- 
ual world.  The  more  we  know  of  life  in  any 
form,  the  broader  is  the  realm  in  which  it  ex- 
tends. As  has  already  been  said,  we  know 
very  little  of  that  vast  realm  which  lies  be- 
tween what  we  know  as  matter  and  what 
we  conceive  as  spirit.  Many  forces  are  there 
as  yet  little  understood  and  many  others 
doubtless  of  which  we  as  yet  have  no  intima- 
tion. That  these  will  make  for  health,  if  we 
can  use  them,  seems  beyond  dispute.  Scien- 
tific men  are  talking  much  of  a  **  subliminal 
world,"  and  a  ''  sub-conscious  self "  ;  by  which 
we  understand  them  to  mean  this  world  which 
lies  beyond  our  conscious  knowledge.  They 
talk  of  "psychic  forces"  as  indicating  the 
powers  which  are  hidden  there  or  emerge  from 
it.  No  man  can  deny  its  existence,  and  our 
ignorance  of  the  nature  or  the  extent  of  those 


258         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

forces  not  only  does  not  disprove  their  existence, 
but  invites  us  to  investigate  them,  and  as 
rapidly  and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  take  advan- 
tage of  them,  and  to  use  them  in  every  way 
within  our  power,  and  to  the  extent  of  our  intel- 
ligence, in  contributing  to  human  welfare  as  to 
human  health.  That  the  Church  has  a  function 
in  this  direction  both  in  discovering  these  forces 
and  in  learning  and  teaching  how  to  use  them 
would  seem  to  be  obvious.  It  has  a  charter  for 
just  such  a  function  and  has  long  exercised  it  in 
the  healing  of  souls.  Why  should  it  limit  either 
its  attainments  or  its  attempts  ?  Why  should  it 
hesitate  to  push  out  into  realms  not  yet  trav- 
ersed, and  to  do  its  best  to  make  contributions 
both  to  science  and  to  the  physical  life  and 
possibly  to  religion  itself  by  such  effort. 

Thirdly :  Among  these  forces  which  either 
lie  beyond,  or  reach  beyond,  the  laws  of  the 
natural  world  and  extend  into  the  larger  world 
where  our  knowledge  as  yet  is  so  circumscribed, 
is  the  force  of  prayer.  Indeed  it  represents  a 
world  by  itself.  There  are  too  many  promises  of 
God  in  His  Word,  and  they  are  far  too  emphatic 
and  too  vitally  significant,  to  be  overlooked ;  and 
there  are  far  too  many  instances  in  the  individual 
experience  of  believers  to  be  ignored,  or  to  be 
gainsaid.  It  is  not  only  true  that  there  are 
more  things  in  heaven  above  than  are  dreamed 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      259 

of  in  our  philosophies,  but  there  is  a  whole 
world  of  experience  and  of  the  blessed  life  in 
which  prayer  is  the  chief  agency  of  lifting  men 
to  God  and  of  bringing  the  power  of  God  to 
avail  in  man's  behalf,  and  this  without  raising 
the  question  of  whether  this  power  works  by 
natural  or  by  spiritual  laws,  or  whether  it  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  miracle  or  not.  It  is  sufficient 
that  it  exists,  that  it  is  applicable  in  every  variety 
of  individual  need  and  through  the  whole 
range, — body,  soul,  or  spirit, — of  the  individual 
life.  It  is  God's  gracious  gift.  It  is  like  the 
uncounted  treasure  in  the  great  vault  of  the 
bank.  Men  may  come  and  walk  about  and  ex- 
ercise all  their  wisdom  and  their  power ;  so 
they  cannot  have  access  to  it.  The  one  comes 
who  has  the  right  and  the  power  to  throw  it 
open  ;  then  every  man  may  approach  in  the  ap- 
pointed way  and  take  what  now  becomes  his 
own.  The  reserves  of  prayer  belong  to  God 
and  are  given  to  whom  He  will. 

That  the  Church  has  a  blessed  function  which 
it  has  always  recognized,  and  always  rejoiced 
in,  and  always  been  sustained  by,  in  using  and 
cultivating  the  habit  of  prayer  for  every  form  of 
human  need,  is  known  to  all.  What  would  be 
the  results,  if  the  Church  with  one  mind  should 
give  itself  to  the  practice  of  prayer,  and  should 
use  prayer,  within  the  range  with  which  it  al- 


260         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

ready  knows  its  efficiency  in  doing  the  will 
of  God,  for  the  benefit  of  suffering  humanity 
about  us,  no  man  can  say ;  but  that  blessing 
would  abound  and  that  human  life  would  take 
on  a  new  form  of  joy  and  strength  and  courage 
and  hope,  no  man  can  question. 

Furthermore,  in  the  fourth  place,  there  is  un- 
doubtedly special  need  of  this  to-day.  Perhaps 
as  never  before  in  the  development  of  civiliza- 
tion has  nervous  exhaustion  become  so  common 
in  connection  with  the  higher  forms  of  civilized 
life  as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  certain  that  there  is 
far  too  much  disease  and  suffering  which  has 
this  as  its  origin.  Moreover,  there  is  much  re- 
ligious unrest  from  one  cause  or  another,  and 
in  consequence  a  wide-spread  tendency  to  take 
up  with  whatever  is  mystical,  if  not  with  what- 
ever claims  to  be  supernatural.  It  is  the  day 
of  the  fakir,  and  poor  human  nature,  suffering 
under  the  various  forms  of  nervous  disease,  is 
easy  game  for  impostors.  There  is  much  profit 
in  the  new  doctrines  and  the  new  practices, 
so  much  so  indeed  that  many  are  ready  to  take 
them  up  as  professional  healers,  and  many  simple 
souls  are  being  separated  both  from  their  money 
and  their  accustomed  sanity  as  a  consequence. 

All  this  leads  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Church  can  do  more  than  it  has  done.  It  can 
emphasize  an  exacter  truth  and  a  more  careful 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      261 

honesty.  This  must  be  the  basis  of  all  success- 
ful dealing  both  with  health  and  with  religion. 
If  people  can  be  led  to  practice  their  religion  in 
their  daily  lives,  in  their  relations  one  to  another 
by  a  scrupulous  integrity  and  careful  guarding 
against  the  prevalent  temptation  to  make  money 
quickly  and  to  overestimate  its  value  as  ex- 
pressed in  luxury  and  comfort,  much  will  be 
done  to  establish  a  quiet  conscience ;  and  that  is 
a  direct  path  to  health. 

Emphasis  needs  also  to  be  laid  upon  regular 
habits  of  devotion.  It  is  not  without  signifi- 
cance that  the  rapid  development  of  nervous 
diseases  is  contemporary  with  wide-spread  aban- 
doning of  private  and  family  devotions.  The 
habit  of  spending  a  little  time  morning  and 
evening  alone  with  God  and  of  gathering  the 
family  for  united  worship  and  also  of  being 
regular  in  attendance  upon  church  on  Sunday, 
go  far  to  secure  that  state  of  mind  and  that  kind 
of  religious  faith  which  gives  the  soul  self-con- 
trol, steadiness  and  calm,  and  in  a  large  degree 
guarantees  it  against  the  ills  which  come  through 
nervous  excitement  or  nervous  depletion.  It 
seems  very  clear  that  no  single  thing  will  do  so 
much  to  meet  the  need  of  the  hour,  however 
extensive  it  may  appear,  as  a  change  in  the 
habits  of  Christians  in  this  respect,  and  a  return 
to  the  religious  ways  of  the  past,  when  these 


262         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

habits  of  private  devotion  were  emphasized  and 
widely  practiced. 

It  is  the  privilege  of  the  Church  also  to  strive 
for  both  the  teaching  and  the  possession  of  a 
more  substantial  faith.  It  is  probably  inevitable 
that  times  of  scientific  discovery  and  great  in- 
tellectual unrest  must  disturb  the  foundations  of 
faith,  and  in  many  minds  so  far  change  the 
character  of  one's  personal  convictions  as  to  des- 
troy their  value  if  not  their  life-giving  quality. 
There  is  call  for  the  Church  to  point  out  the 
distinction  between  scholarly  examination  of  the 
history  and  technical  character  of  the  Biblical 
records,  and  the  possession  of  a  settled  personal 
faith  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  two  are 
quite  distinct,  but  they  have  been  sadly  con- 
fused to  the  destruction  of  the  peace  of  not  a 
few. 

If,  in  view  of  the  present  needs,  the  pulpit 
should  give  large  place  to  personal  religion, — 
how  it  is  secured,  and  how  it  is  to  be  main- 
tained— with  a  setting  forth  of  the  solidity  of  its 
foundations,  and  the  blessings  which  it  brings 
as  an  individual  experience,  much  would  be  ac- 
complished in  the  direction  of  both  mental  and 
physical  healing,  so  far  as  the  one  is  connected 
with  the  other. 

Furthermore,  there  is  certainly  occasion  for 
the   Church  to  show  greater  readiness  to  help 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      263 

the  sick,  particularly  those  who  naturally  come 
within  its  influence  or  in  whom  there  is  more  or 
less  manifest  connection  between  their  mental 
or  moral  state,  and  their  bodily  sufferings.  It 
is  not  sufficient  for  the  Church  merely  to  be 
willing  to  do  this.  There  is  a  manifest  occasion 
for  its  reaching  out  for  the  opportunity.  It,  of 
course,  must  incur  the  hostile  criticism  of  those 
who  are  exploiting  such  healing  for  their  own 
personal  gain.  But  that  need  not  deter  the 
Church  from  undertaking  the  task  and  pressing 
it  into  larger  relations  than  it  has  hitherto  done. 
The  work  of  some  ministers  and  churches  who 
are  attracting  attention  for  the  extent  of  their 
service  in  this  direction  might  be  widely  ex- 
tended, under  careful  guidance  and  the  watch- 
ful supervision  of  friendly  physicians,  with 
manifest  blessing  to  the  community  and 
strengthening  the  position  of  the  Church. 

In  order  to  do  this  effectively,  the  Church 
must  give  a  larger  place  than  is  customary  to 
individual  testimony.  The  old-fashioned  testi- 
mony meeting  has  largely  been  abandoned  and 
Christians  have  become  silent  in  matters  of  per- 
sonal faith  and  very  shy  of  religious  conversa- 
tion. But  there  is  a  power  in  testimony  that  is 
not  found  elsewhere,  and  it  is  a  distinct  loss  not 
to  take  advantage  of  it.  The  mid-week  prayer- 
meeting  which  has  in  many  cases  fallen  into 


264         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

neglect  would  be  greatly  quickened  and  its  in- 
fluence vastly  increased  if  it  could  be  made 
again  what  it  once  was, — a  meeting  for  testi- 
mony as  well  as  for  prayer — and  if  the  laymen 
could  be  brought  to  feel  that  they  owe  to  one 
another  as  well  as  to  the  Lord,  this  expression 
of  their  gratitude  and  of  their  desire  that  others 
may  share  with  them  the  experiences  which 
make  their  religion  real  and  precious. 

Coupled  with  this,  there  might  well  be  much 
more  specific  prayer  for  definite  and  stated 
needs  than  is  generally  the  custom.  In  times 
of  revival,  there  is  always  a  flood  of  requests 
for  prayer.  If  this  habit  of  making  prayer  di- 
rect and  specific  were  maintained  and  regular 
meetings  for  prayer  were  given  this  character, 
it  could  not  fail  to  do  much  for  the  comfort  of 
both  troubled  souls  and  suffering  bodies,  as 
people  would  be  led  to  feel  that  the  blessing  of 
prayer  was  always  within  their  reach  and  the 
help  of  prayer  earnest  and  united  was  available 
for  them. 

All  this  would  bring  about  a  closer  and  more 
immediate  dependence  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian upon  God.  It  is  not  enough  to  believe 
that  God  is  immanent  in  the  world.  We  need 
the  sense  of  personal  intimacy  and  friendship ; 
if  that  can  be  developed,  there  will  be  both 
steadiness  of  faith  and  an  efficiency  of  immediate 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SICK      265 

helpfulness  in  prayer  of  which  many  Christians 
to-day  seem  to  have  slight  experience. 

Whatever  the  Apostle  Paul  meant  when  he 
said:  "I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,"  it  certainly  would  involve  a  great 
change  in  the  attitude  of  many  Christians  to- 
wards bodily  ailments  if  they  could  take  his 
view  of  what  occurs  when  one  accepts  the  in- 
evitable as  of  Divine  appointment,  and  is  cheer- 
fully willing  to  face  it  for  Christ's  sake,  and  go 
patiently  forward  to  do  His  will.  When  Paul 
added  the  saying,  **that  the  life  also  of  Jesus 
might  be  made  manifest  in  our  body,"  he  sug- 
gested how  Christians,  whatever  their  state  of 
bodily  health  or  disease,  may  so  walk  with  God 
as  to  be  themselves  conclusive  testimony  to  the 
reality  of  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  to  make  sure 
their  own  growth  in  joy  and  peace,  whether  in 
sickness  or  in  health.  This  truly  is  the  supreme 
good. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  language  of  Professor 
Barker,  of  Johns  Hopkins,  "to  give  peace  of 
mind  to  the  disturbed,  to  cheer  the  despondent, 
to  relieve  the  fearful,  the  anxious,  or  the  appre- 
hensive, to  embolden  the  timid,  to  enable  the 
distracted  to  concentrate  and  to  replace  inde- 
cision by  a  fixed  purpose,  is  to  confer  an  in- 
calculable benefit  upon  the  community." 

In  the  words  of  the  late  Dr.  James  Martineau 


266         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

- — *'  Whatever  may  be  meant  by  the  two  great 
preternatural  endowments  entrusted  to  its  earli- 
est missionaries — the  gift  of  tongues,  and  the 
gift  of  healing — they  represent  clearly  enough 
the  two  grand  functions  of  our  religion,  to  bear 
persuasion  to  the  minds  and  to  bring  mercy  to 
the  physical  ills  of  men.  .  .  .  When  the 
crowd  of  weary  sufferers  thronged  around  the 
Apostles*  steps  in  the  city,  the  blind  supporting 
the  lame,  and  the  lame  eyes  to  the  blind,  or 
when  the  solitary  leper  saw  them  in  the  field 
and  made  his  gesture  of  entreaty  from  afar,  and 
all  were  healed,  how  better  could  be  represented 
the  character  of  that  faith  which  has  never  set 
eyes  on  pain  without  yielding  it  a  tear,  which 
in  proportion  as  it  has  been  cordially  embraced, 
has  lessened  age  after  age  the  stripes  where- 
with humanity  is  stricken?  ...  In  the 
spirit  of  these  acts  of  Providence  we  may  par- 
ticipate. While  fanatics  pretend  to  repeat  their 
marvellousness  we  may  choose  the  better  part 
and  copy  their  beneficence." 

For  the  Christian  it  is  no  small  thing  if,  when 
his  time  comes,  he  has  grace  given  to  him, 
without  undue  distress  or  running  after  quacks, 
to  "  die  like  a  gentleman." 


XXI 

JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

"  And  as  ye  go  preach,  saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
h&nd." —Mati/iew  lo:  7. 

MANY  people  are  troubled  because 
Jesus  did  not  declare  Himself  defi- 
nitely and  with  authority  upon  social 
and  political  questions.  Human  slavery,  the 
relations  of  capital  and  labour,  the  distribution  of 
property,  the  condition  of  woman,  the  injustice 
of  existing  forms  of  taxation,  and  the  problems 
of  civilized  government,  were  all  in  evidence 
then,  and  deserved  the  attention  of  any  true 
reformer  as  much  as  they  do  to-day.  The  re- 
ligion that  bears  the  name  of  Christ  has  seen  all 
these  evils  persist,  and  is  coexistent  to-day 
with  a  wide-spread  divorce  of  private  from  pub- 
lic and  commercial  morality. 

Many  feel  that  it  would  be  a  great  help  in  the 
removal  of  existing  evils  if  a  definite  declaration 
of  Jesus  could  be  produced,  or  if  His  record 
with  regard  to  any  one  of  the  existing  forms  of 
wide-spread  trouble  could  be  shown  to  be  un- 
equivocal. In  the  batde  that  must  be  persist- 
ently waged   for   human  betterment  in  every 

267 


268         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

form,  the  importance  of  Christianity  as  sustain- 
ing the  right  and  guiding  the  lines  of  the  con- 
test is  recognized  of  all,  and,  naturally,  there  is 
a  constant  attempt  to  adduce  the  evidence  of 
Jesus,  and  always  more  or  less  embarrassment 
in  explaining  His  evident  lack,  if  not  of  interest 
in  these  questions,  at  least  of  purpose  to  make 
definite  statements  and  take  a  decisive  position. 
One  who  was  giving  His  Ufe  for  the  world  could 
not  be  accused  of  lack  of  interest  in  these  sub- 
jects, and  it  is  difficult  to  explain  His  method 
with  them,  unless  pains  be  taken  to  know  ex- 
actly what  that  method  was. 

To  determine  this  we  have  to  go  back  in 
thought  to  Jesus'  day.  From  that  standpoint  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  His  first  duty  was  to  avoid 
stirring  up  the  Jews  in  rebellion  against  the  Ro- 
man authority.  They  w^ere  completely  under 
the  dominion  of  the  new  and  all-powerful  Ro- 
man empire.  They  were  by  temper  turbulent 
and  even  murderous ;  the  Galileans  especially 
were  under  the  closest  supervision  ;  and  as  Jews, 
all  had  awakened  both  the  suspicion  and  the  posi- 
tive hostility  of  their  conquerors.  Herod,  their 
king,  had  played  a  double  game  in  his  ambition 
to  have  himself  made  the  ultimate  ruler ;  and  at 
his  death  his  kingdom  had  been  divided  among 
his  sons  in  order  to  diminish  the  danger  of  suc- 
cessful rebellion. 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     269 

Any  least  suggestion  at  the  beginning  of  His 
ministry  that  our  Lord  had  in  view  political 
change  would  have  brought  down  upon  Him  at 
once  the  crushing  power  of  Rome,  and  His 
ministry  would  have  been  ended.  His  saying, 
''They  that  take  the  sword  will  perish  by  the 
sword  "  was  no  more  truly  a  maxim  for  moral 
reform  for  all  time  than  it  was  the  announce- 
ment of  an  obviously  wise  and  necessary  policy 
for  Himself. 

Furthermore,  it  was  necessary  for  Him,  before 
His  ministry  could  make  much  progress,  to 
change  the  Messianic  conception  of  His  nation. 
The  Messianic  prophecies  had  gradually  come 
to  be  interpreted  as  of  a  great  temporary  ruler 
who,  coming  with  Divine  authority,  if  not  with 
Divine  power,  was  to  reestablish  Israel  among 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  restore  Zion  as  a 
kingly  capital.  The  Jews  were  looking  for 
armies  and  banners.  Unless  Jesus  could  change 
that  conception  of  what  was  in  store  for  the 
world,  it  would  be  impossible  for  Him  to  gain 
that  acceptance  for  the  kingdom  of  God  which 
it  was  His  business  to  preach  and  to  introduce. 
Time  was  therefore  necessary  for  Him  to  make 
plain  and  to  unfold  that  spiritual  kingdom  which 
He  came  to  inaugurate. 

It  was,  also,  of  vital  importance  that  He  should 
gain  time  for  training  disciples.     His  own  min- 


270         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

istry  must  necessarily  be  brief.  The  future  of 
the  cause  which  He  represented  and  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  work  which  He  inaugurated,  and 
to  encourage  which  His  life  was  to  be  a  final 
sacrifice,  turned  upon  His  leaving  disciples 
who  were  so  far  enlightened  as  to  Himself 
and  His  mission,  and  so  far  committed  to  it, 
that  they  could  act  as  His  Apostles.  There- 
fore, for  three  years  He  gave  Himself  so  com- 
pletely to  this  single  task,  making  it  appar- 
ently first  in  His  thought.  At  last  in  spite  of 
all,  one  of  them  betrayed  Him  and  the  others 
were  so  imperfectly  established  that  they  all  for- 
sook Him  and  fled.  But  the  thoroughness  of 
His  work  appeared  in  their  prompt  return  with 
the  new  spirit  and  the  heroic  devotion  with 
which  they  gave  themselves  to  the  preaching  of 
His  Gospel,  and  ultimately,  if  the  tradition  may 
be  believed,  sacrificing  their  lives,  one  by  one, 
in  His  cause. 

The  result  of  His  policy  was  that  He  suc- 
ceeded in  awakening  no  political  suspicions, 
and  that  though  at  last  He  was  arrested,  tried, 
and  condemned  for  what  w^as  charged  as  being 
political  treason,  in  fact  it  was  recognized  even 
by  the  Roman  authorities  as  a  trumped-up 
charge.  His  followers  were  apparently  en- 
tirely ignored  by  the  civil  authorities  after  His 
death. 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     271 

"Those  eyes  elate  and  clear, 
Which  neither  doubt  nor  fear 
Nor  even  love  nor  glorious  wrath  could  blind," 

saw  the  constant  danger,  and  with  supreme 
wisdom  He  did  His  work  in  full  view  of  the 
necessities  of  the  situation.  He  succeeded  in 
preaching  the  kingdom  of  God  as  at  hand  in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  stir  the  hearts  of  men  with- 
out stirring  up  political  or  social  revolution,  lay- 
ing thus  deep  and  permanent  foundations  for  His 
cause.  Only  at  last  does  He  boldly  proclaim 
Himself  the  Messiah,  though  He  always  had 
apparently  been  conscious  of  it,  and  was  willing 
to  have  it  recognized.  Then,  however,  the  crisis 
came.  His  enemies  were  forced  to  act,  for  they 
said,  not  without  truth,  "  The  Romans  will  come 
and  take  away  both  our  place  and  our  nation." 
The  danger  was  sufficiently  real  to  serve  their 
purpose,  though  the  Romans  themselves  were 
little  disturbed  by  it. 

In  view  of  this  situation,  the  method  that 
Jesus  pursued  in  His  teaching  becomes  intelli- 
gible and  instructive.  He  was  not  content  with 
living  a  true  and  beautiful  life  as  the  Son  of 
God ;  nor  was  He  content  with  simply  opening 
heaven  to  individuals.  The  Father  had  sent 
Him  to  found  a  new  spiritual  society,  which  was 
to  be  indeed  a  new  order  of  humanity.  He 
called  it  the  kingdom  of  God.     It  was  present 


272         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

in  Him  as  a  germ  ;  but  it  was  to  develop  as  a 
future  visible  reality,  to  spread  from  Him  to  the 
hearts  of  other  men,  and  so  in  time  to  be 
wrought  out  and  built  up  in  human  history  un- 
til eventually  it  shall  become  all-embracing. 
The  foundation  of  His  mission  is  His  revelation 
of  the  Father.  He  came  from  the  Father.  He 
spoke  the  words  of  the  Father.  He  did  the  will 
of  the  Father.  At  last  He  returned  again  to  the 
Father.  His  whole  work  was  thus  a  proclama- 
tion and  a  revelation  of  that  Father  whose  wit- 
ness and  representative  He  was. 

This  proclamation  constituted  a  new  pres- 
entation of  God  to  men.  The  very  name  was 
the  starting  point  of  the  unfolding  of  a  con- 
ception of  God  of  boundless  possibilities.  It 
suggested  the  oneness  of  nature  between  men 
as  the  sons  of  God  and  their  Creator.  It 
opened  the  way  for  an  appeal  to  all  that  is  best 
in  the  heart  of  man  and  disclosed  a  new  side 
of  the  relation  of  God  to  men  in  which  love,  of 
an  essential  and  enduring  kind,  becomes  pre- 
eminent. It  culminated  in  our  Lord's  explana- 
tion of  His  mission  in  His  final  answer  to  the 
Pharisees,  when  for  the  third  time,  as  described 
in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  they  interrogated 
Him  as  to  His  intimacy  with  publicans  and 
sinners.  He  tells  the  story  of  the  lost  sheep, 
and  the  lost  money,  and  the  lost  son,  as  indi- 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     273 

eating  God's  loss  in  the  destruction  or  carrying 
away  of  His  property  in  the  souls  of  men,  and 
reveals  the  intensity  of  the  purpose  with  which 
God  strives  by  every  means  to  regain  His  own 
by  winning  men  one  by  one  back  to  Himself. 

This  prepares  the  way  for  His  presentation 
of  Himself  as  the  Mediator  of  the  new  Life 
which  He  reveals  as  opening  for  men,  in  conse- 
quence of  this  redeeming  love  of  God.  He 
presents  in  Himself  that  union  of  the  human 
and  the  Divine  which  makes  that  union  a 
reality,  and  which  opens  the  way  for  His  sacri- 
ficial service.  As  His  mission  closes  men  see 
in  His  death  the  consummate  revelation  of  a 
Divine  love  which  has  power  to  bring  even  the 
dead  to  life.  In  His  death  and  resurrection 
He  gives  proof  of  the  victory  over  death  and 
the  grave  which  opens  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
in  its  fullest  possibilities,  to  any  sinner  who  will 
believe.  It  closes  the  grave  as  the  final  de- 
struction of  a  sinful  soul  and  reveals  the  possi- 
bility of  the  wiping  out  both  of  sin  and  its 
consequences  in  guilt  which  makes  the  new 
life  of  the  forgiven  sinner  such  a  supreme 
reality  that  eternal  joy  and  companionship  with 
the  Father  are  within  its  reach.  By  a  sacrifice 
which  is  in  the  largest  possible  sense  vicarious, 
and  has  results  far  more  extensive  and  com- 
plete than   they  are  explicable,  in  giving  His 


274         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

life  for  the  world,  He  redeems  the  world,  and 
reestablishes  in  the  hearts  of  men  the  dominion 
of  God. 

In  doing  this  He  emphasizes  man's  freedom 
and  individual  responsibility.  That  knowledge 
of  individual  responsibility  which  had  slowly 
developed  by  means  of  the  revelations  recorded 
in  the  Old  Testament,  in  which,  in  spite  of  the 
visiting  of  the  father's  sins  upon  the  children, 
the  separate  and  wholly  personal  responsibility 
of  every  man  before  the  power  of  God,  was 
proclaimed,  becomes  in  Him  a  central  truth. 
He  not  only  called  men  one  by  one  to  follow 
Him  and  so  enter  into  life,  but  He  showed  how 
only  in  that  way  can  men  find  life.  Repent- 
ance and  faith  and  right  living,  as  before  God, 
no  man  can  render  for  another.  In  the  face 
of  all  the  possible  sundering  of  the  strongest  of 
human  bonds,  even  to  the  antagonizing  of 
fathers  and  children,  and  husbands  and  wives, 
men  are  to  hear  the  voice  of  God  and  individ- 
ually to  obey  it.  Christ's  Gospel  in  its  initial 
stages  is  distinctly  individualistic.  The  re- 
demption that  it  proclaims  and  the  life  that  it 
offers  are  alike  the  privilege  and  declare  the 
duty  of  each  separate  soul. 

Upon  this  He  based  His  doctrine  of  the 
kingdom.  The  new  movement  which  He 
inaugurated  was  a  redemptive  process  to  em- 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     275 

brace  humanity  and  to  continue  through  all 
time.  Its  first  effect  was  to  uproot  paganism 
in  which  all  God's  purpose  with  men  is  de- 
feated. The  evil  becomes  the  good.  God  is 
dethroned.  Love  is  abandoned  and  life  be- 
comes the  arena  for  the  play  of  uncontrolled 
passions,  which,  destroying  all  hope  for  the 
future,  make  even  the  present  life  a  hell. 

Suppose  Jesus  had  done  as  some  reformers 
to-day  would  have  had  Him  do,  and  had  begun 
by  attacking  the  organization  of  the  state. 
Suppose  He  had  advocated  the  rule  of  the  best 
men,  as  has  been  suggested  by  others.  Both 
Athens  and  Israel  had  tried  it,  and  it  had  ended 
in  profligacy  and  phariseeism.  Lord  Acton's 
saying  is  an  abiding  truth — **  No  class  is  fit  to 
rule."  And  history  is  full  of  evidence  that  no 
class  has  ever  proved  itself  adequate  for  such 
a  task.  Suppose  He  had  advocated  the  rule 
of  the  people  in  some  form  of  democracy.  We 
know  now  that  democracy  means  centraliza- 
tion, and  centralization  in  the  end  produces 
tyranny,  at  least  until  regulated  by  approved 
checks  which  even  with  all  the  advance  which 
the  modern  centuries  have  made  in  the  art  of 
government  we  have  not  yet  satisfactorily  pro- 
duced. 

Suppose  He  had  yielded  to  pressure  like  that 
under   which   society  is   to-day  and   had  ad- 


276        THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

vocated  new  schemes  in  regard  to  property. 
If  He  had  advocated  the  dividing  among  all 
according  to  their  several  needs,  that  is  extreme 
Socialism,  which  would  attack  the  very  primal 
impulses  to  industry,  would  have  caused  pro- 
duction to  fall  off,  and  would  have  made  it 
necessary  to  regulate  the  increase  of  population 
in  the  selfish  interest  of  those  who  would  con- 
trol its  growth,  at  the  beginning  of  modern 
history  men  would  have  found  their  liberties 
curtailed  in  every  direction. 

Suppose  He  had  done  what  many  would-be 
leaders  of  thought  are  doing  to-day,  and  had 
exalted  the  value  of  material  good.  Suppose 
He  had  made  the  possession  of  houses  and 
lands  and  money  the  ideal.  At  once  tyranny 
and  slavery  and  selfishness  and  greed  would 
have  been  the  inevitable  result.  The  struggle 
of  humanity  for  progress  in  civilization  would 
have  ended  in  disaster  overwhelming  and  hope- 
less. Suppose  He  had  advocated  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slave.  Social  revolution  would 
have  been  precipitated  and  chaos  would  have 
reigned.  As  it  was,  with  all  the  peculiar  gifts 
for  government  of  the  Roman  people,  a  begin- 
ning was  barely  made  in  the  development  of 
those  forms  of  institution  and  life  which  have 
been  the  foundation  stones  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion ;  and  the  disturbance  which  such  a  revolu- 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     277 

tionary  movement  would  have  inaugurated 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  retard  the  world's 
progress  indefinitely,  if  not  to  have  arrested  it 
altogether.  The  world  was  far  from  ready  for 
the  movement  for  which  history  has  proved  it 
had  to  wait  another  two  thousand  years. 

Suppose  He  had  advocated  woman's  rights 
and  universal  suffrage.  To-day  it  is  manifest 
that  there  is  no  validity  in  mere  external  agen- 
cies or  systems  of  administration  of  government. 
These,  whether  they  be  better  or  worse,  theo- 
retically ideal  or  the  opposite,  find  all  their  value 
in  the  developed  character  and  the  trained  in- 
telligence and  self-control  of  those  who  are  to 
enjoy  and  to  administer  them. 

What  Jesus  did  was  to  suggest  no  final  form 
for  the  realization  of  human  ideals.  He  pro- 
claimed the  principles  of  life,  spiritual,  all-em- 
bracing, perpetual.  The  foundation  truth  was 
that  God  is  Father,  and  men  are  brothers.  He 
showed  in  Himself  what  this  means,  and  then 
said :  **  Follow  Me.  Obey  My  words.  Walk 
in  My  steps.  Open  your  hearts  to  receive  and 
cultivate  My  Spirit.  And  out  of  this  will  come 
both  the  happiness  of  men  and  the  establishing 
of  the  kingdom  of  God." 

The  Church  which  He  called  into  being 
started  to  do  this.  It  began  by  preaching  His 
Gospel  and  winning  men  to  repentance  and  to 


278         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

the  new  Life.  It  put  the  Scriptures  in  their 
hands  to  declare  the  message  and  to  guide  the 
life.  It  is  not  a  final  authority  or  an  exclusive 
guide.  It  can  only  be  understood  as  other 
lights  are  turned  upon  it.  Much  light  was  to 
come  from  without,  and  the  Church  proceeded 
immediately  to  seek  it  everywhere.  Each 
man's  individual  experience  of  his  own  heart, 
each  new  event  in  God's  Providence  with  him 
or  in  the  service  which  he  strove  to  render  to 
God  cast  light  upon  the  meaning  of  what  he 
received  as  God's  word.  So,  the  Bible  grew  in 
the  understanding  and  in  the  hearts  of  believers, 
and  it  became  fruitful  correspondingly  in  their 
lives.  In  proportion  as  the  Church  has  thus 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  Bible  and  taken 
the  Bible  into  its  own  life,  this  life  has  broad- 
ened and  deepened  and  become  enriched.  So 
the  kingdom  of  God  has  advanced  under  all 
sorts  of  external  conditions.  Everywhere  it 
shows  creative  power.  It  has  proved  itself 
adapted  to  men  in  every  condition  of  civiliza- 
tion, taking  them  as  they  are,  reaching  out  to 
their  conscious  need,  and  at  once  proceeding  to 
elevate  them  along  all  lines  of  human  possibility 
and  attainment,  so  that  everywhere  the  germ 
of  Christian  civilization  has  come  to  denote  both 
that  which  is  best  in  human  experience  and  in 
human    ideals.     As    Principal    Drummond   of 


JESUS  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS     279 

Manchester  says  in  closing  his  new  book, 
"Studies  in  Christian  Doctrine,"  "It  is  the 
peculiarity  of  Christian  discipleship  that  it  is 
not  obedience  to  law,  however  sacred,  or  the 
acceptance  of  a  theology,  however  true,"  or,  we 
may  add,  the  adoption  of  any  form  of  human 
society,  however  promising,  "but  the  impress 
of  a  Spirit  and  a  communion  of  Love ;  and  if 
that  blessed  image  which  has  dwelt  as  a  re- 
deeming power  in  the  heart  of  Christendom 
were  to  fade  out  of  memory,  no  teaching  could 
take  its  place  as  an  uplifting  power,  for  the 
kindling  touch  of  sympathy  and  love  would  be 
wanting." 

While  humanitarian  enthusiasm  fails,  because 
it  lacks  permanent  driving  power,  and  because 
it  cannot  reach  to  the  low  levels  of  men  to 
whom  moral  enthusiasm  is  not  possible  and 
spiritual  ideals  are  either  unknown  or  have  been 
utterly  destroyed,  the  Gospel  of  Christ  every- 
where puts  life  under  the  ribs  of  death  and 
makes  all  life  both  glad  and  better.  "Joy,"  as 
some  one  has  said,  "  is,"  from  the  Christian 
standpoint,  "  love  counting  up  its  blessings." 
And  the  work  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  es- 
tablishing of  this  joy  which  springs  in  the  hearts 
of  men  who  know  God  as  their  Father  and  their 
Friend.  The  spread  of  the  Gospel  has  as  its  im- 
mediate effect  growing  unrest  as  the  world  re- 


280         THE  NEW  THINGS  OF  GOD 

spends  to  the  call  to  a  better  life.  The  business 
of  the  follower  of  Jesus  Christ  is  to  point  out  the 
way  to  that  life  as  Jesus  Christ  Himself  enacted 
it.  Holding  up  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  is  something  more  than  holding  Him  up 
as  a  social  reformer.  His  appeal  is  to  men  as 
children  of  God  to  whom  He  has  come  as  the 
elder  brother  to  lead  them  to  the  Father.  As 
the  eyes  of  men  are  opened  to  the  new  relation- 
ship, their  duties  one  to  another  spring  into 
controlling  place.  Will  a  man  defraud  or  op- 
press his  neighbour  ?  He  is  his  brother, — with 
him  equally  a  child  of  God,  however  great  a 
distinction  may  be  between  them  along  the  line 
of  earthly  possessions  or  privileges.  Will  he 
cheat,  or  lie,  or  be  impure  ?  He  is  a  child  of  the 
Father,  and  because  of  that  relationship,  is  im- 
pelled to  be  what  his  Father  would  have  him  and 
to  prove  his  brotherhood  with  the  Jesus  who  has 
opened  for  him  the  knowledge  of  his  new  life. 

So  men  recognize  the  need  and  the  meaning 
of  a  Christian  society  as  they  discover  the  obli- 
gations and  the  meaning  of  a  Christian  life.  So 
the  prayer  "  Thy  kingdom  come  "  becomes  an 
essential  part  of  the  prayer  for  the  forgiveness 
of  one's  own  sin,  and  the  relations  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  condition  of  the  world  about  us 
become  identical  with  His  relation  to  the  world 
within  our  own  hearts. 


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